The Hokuto Ryuuken Master
by SSTR87
Summary: If things so happened to play out a little differently, like say Naruto found a chest filled with techniques of a long forgotten fighting art, what would be the results? While I am borrowing the Hokuto Ryuuken Fighting style from HNK, there is nothing else crossing the divide. Enjoy the tale of a different Naruto, The Savior of The World in a new light. Not a harem fic
1. Chapter 1

Things were different than before. Not so clear-cut and concise. The fine line between Black and White had spread, grown like a wildfire, giving way to gray. The line of gray was quickly growing to encompass all that the young child saw. The bright and sunny boy named Naruto Uzumaki had yet to give up on his lifetime goal, but the method of achieving wasn't quite as naive. He knew that he wanted to become Hokage, but in order to do so, he needed to be strong.

The blonde frowned, not for the first time, as he watched his kunai drift off-course. At present, the eleven-year-old-ninja was training just on the edge of the village in a shadowy corner that few ventured more for the practicality of urban life than it being seedy. After all, a ninja village couldn't afford to have seedy areas. Nonetheless, Naruto was here in the privacy afforded by it, with the sole exception of the girl hiding around a corner, stalking him. He, of course, was totally unaware.

With a grumble, Naruto walked into the grass and bush to retrieve his kunai. He only had a few of them with his small pittance, and replacing even one was going to be murder on his food and repair supply cash. It took him a little while as the overgrowth of trees was casting too many shadows, but eventually the young blonde did find kunai. It was embedded in a wooden chest that seemed to be glowing with vines encasing the box.

"Ooh, a treasure chest," cheered the young boy, imagining some pirates stashing their goods out here. Of course, he never considered the fact that some ninja might have brought it back here and stashed it for the same seclusion that Naruto wanted. Be that as it may, it had lain here for many years both abandoned and forgotten until this one moment. With the grace of an eager child, Naruto ripped away at the ancient lock, somehow not rusted, and pushing the lid open. A rush of red energy swept through the area, blowing a gust over Naruto who smiled like a loon. "Cool!"

Hinata, hiding as she was behind a tree, fidgeted, sensitive to the energy as it washed over her. It wasn't Chakra whatever it was, but it was just as powerful and it really scared her that it could be sealed into a chest in the first place. But, even with that slight fear, Hinata wasn't willing to abandon the boy she desired and she sat to watch Naruto open a book.

"Hokuto Ryuuken," Naruto puzzled as question marks drifted over his head in his puzzlement. The writing was ancient script, but precise and legible, seemingly printed by machine, but with the age of the chest and its overgrowth that would have to be impossible! Yet and still, Naruto began reading the book. The author claimed to have compiled all of the original training scrolls' methods, forms and training regime, something that made Naruto all the more excited.

The blonde boy looked over, into the chest and spied some armor with a horned helmet. "wow, his is amazing!" he crowed as he lifted the armor, wasting no time he started to put it on and stood, feeling like a superhero. However, he hadn't considered the fact that the armor was intended for a full grown man, and one that greatly surpassed most men in height at that. So, he was wearing baggy pants that bunched up at his feet and belt that was way too large and even the tightest belt-notch wasn't anywhere near his waist and the black leather shirt hung like a dress on him. "Awww, man! So much for that idea," he grumbled as she took the clothing off, but laid it out on the ground to study what it should look like.

As Naruto studied the patterns, he considered the fact that it would so much better with orange highlights and started producing an image in his mind (Essentially Shippuden outfit on leather instead of cotton with a golden-colored chestplate, high-calf boots, wrist-guards, and a faceless helmet with bull horns turned to the front). With a little laugh, Naruto banished the thought, knowing he could never afford something like that. At least not until he became a real ninja.

Hinata, as self-conscious as she was couldn't stop herself from wondering about the origins of the chest containing armor, books and who knew what else Naruto hadn't brought out. "Naruto-kun," she whispered softly.

However, the blonde boy was far too enraptured with his find and he pulled out a second book, the image of a horse on the cover. ""Ey?! I gotta get a horse," the boy cried out loudly as he looked at the book. "Where the hell is gonna fit in my apartment?"

Rather than returning to his kunai practice, Naruto opted to turn to the first of many training forms. "Oh man, this looks to complicated!" His complaint was well-founded, as he wasn't one that had learned to follow forms, but he grit his teeth and set about the first one. Hidden away to the side Hinata watched and memorized the form Naruto was going over and fixed them in her own mind as Naruto was obviously off-balance several times.

Hours went by as the blonde practiced, slowly coming to match the perfected form Hinata had created in her mind, and the girl smiled beautifully as she Naruto finally went through the kata perfectly. Her heart was beating so hard in her chest as Naruto jumped up and down in victory. But this was only beginning and Naruto knew it. He was determined to master this fighting style, it would make him into the ultimate ninja!

Hinata watched Naruto until the sun fell, the blonde still going over that first form, now so confident in its use that he no longer referred to the book. Yet, he continued regardless. Sadly, the heiress to the Hyuuga Clan rushed away, leaping through the trees on her way home.

Every day continued in this manner for a week as Naruto drilled the form into his mind. Strangely enough as he mastered the balance and movements, the blonde began to gain a better sense of balance in his daily life, no longer tripping over his own two feet except when overly excited. Hinata could only feel pride as she watched Naruto progress.

It helped that there was no school over the course of the week, in fact there was another month before school started again for the final year of the academy students. Because Naruto was so entranced in his practices and studies, and Hinata with watching him, neither had been paying any attention to the normalcy of the village. The day to day odds and ends that made life worth living, as such neither knew about the gathering of students to pull a major prank on the new teacher they would be having. While it wouldn't bother Hinata all that much, Naruto would cry himself to sleep at the missed opportunity. But, that was neither a concern at the present, nor was it important.

Naruto sighed as he looked at the next lecture. "Geez, everyone wants me to meditate! It's so freakin' boring tho'-ttebayo!"

Hinata barely suppressed a giggle at Naruto's outburst, but she watched along any way. The blonde boy sat in lotus form and read the book, trying to decipher its meaning; meditation being unique to the individual, the boy was rather vague, but described in detail the results of doing it right versus wrong, no that Hinata had sneaked her way into Naruto's apartment and read the book or anything... No.

The Hyuuga girl blushed clear to her toes as she recalled the image of Naruto sleeping in his bed, sprawled out after a particularly hard day's training session. It had been the first time she watched Naruto return home before sunset, and she was curious about what Naruto studying. She didn't get very reading, as her lecherous nature kept her gaze on Naruto's form, hoping for that next bit of skin to reveal itself. She had seen his whole tummy and nearly all the way up his legs before she ran away, fainting dead upon arriving at home, her brain overheated.

A sharp crack filled the air, stealing her attention from her internal thoughts and returning to Naruto's figure in lotus. A steady flow of green waves began to rise from the child's form, surrounding his body with an unholy light.

Hinata balked.

The book had spoken of this aura manifesting, but that wasn't for several chapters, after building up a pool of Motoki (translated as evil battle aura). To think Naruto had enough Chakra to manifest his aura already brought the girl aback. She flashed her hands through a few seals and activated her Byakkugan, the veins surrounding her eyes thickening to gross proportions as she took in the scene. While she was nowhere near a master, nor was she as talented as her older cousin or little sister, she could make out the energy flowing through Naruto.

It was strange, yet fascinating. This Motoki the book had described worried her by its name alone, but as she looked at Naruto, it was literally his Chakra flowing, much more controlled and dense than usual. Where most people radiated small wisps of Chakra, Naruto usually dumped excessive amounts, though completely unfocused. Yet, at this moment, the energy within his pool was tightening, swirling to a crescendo and flowing through his body with precision.

It was unfathomable. The boy thought a nitwit was controlling his overly-abundant Chakra in ways she hadn't seen Chuunin capable of. The green waves drifting off of his body were the residual excess, so tightly compacted and dense that it was within the visible spectrum, not unlike medical Chakra. Yet, there was none of that healing property, she realized as a stream of the Chakra drained the life of the grass under and near the preteen.

Naruto snapped out his trance with alacrity, his vision wild as he looked left and right. "Man, I feel way too hot," he cried out as he got up, tucking his book in his back pouch and took to the trees, the glow still around him, yet slowly fading. Hinata waited a few moments before following along. "Gak!" What she arrived to had her fainting with a blush and overheated brain as Naruto was just pulling off his undershorts, back to the girl's point of arrival. With his last bit of clothing gone, Naruto jumped into the lake in front of him with a cheesy grin. "Yeah! Time for some R and R!" The boy was used to playing alone and enjoyed splashing the water people he imagined to be in the lake with him for a few minutes before his face softened to one of loneliness.

"That's enough of that," he addressed as he slapped his own face a couple times, wiping away the depression. He clambered from the water and dried off quickly before dressing and returning to meditation at the edge of the lake. It wasn't like anyone came to this side any way, as it was reserved for the blonde pariah.

While glowing green, Naruto felt something, a pinprick at the edges of his senses. Someone was around him. He didn't know who or why, but he was determined to find out. "Hey! What do you think you're doing watching me-dattebayo," he shouted into the treeline a distance away. There was of course no reply, so the blonde stood up and stomped his way towards the presence.

He still wasn't sure how he had felt the presence in the first place, but he chalked it up to being awesome and let the thought die. There it was. The person he felt lingering on the edge of his senses. He rounded a tree and found a slumped Hinata, a goofy grin on her red face as blood slowly leaked from her nose. "Aye?! Hinata? Hang on, don't die!"

***line break***

It had been another week, and as Hinata found herself being coached by Naruto in the initial kata form of Hokuto Ryuuken, the Hyuuga heiress wondered how this happened. She flushed with embarrassment as Naruto spotted her placing her feet the wrong way. He wasn't a cruel taskmaster and didn't call her useless as her father other instructors did, instead he would do as he was about to do now.

She fought hard against the faint threatening to claim her as Naruto placed his body against hers and changed her stance slightly, working through the kata as one entity, not aware of the rapture the girl was going through. Naruto flowed through his first mastered kata with an ease that made it appear beautiful. In fact, had one watched the way Naruto, with chest against Hinata's back, led the girl about the forested clearing, they have thought the two were dancing rather intimately.

Hinata allowed a small smile to grace her lips as her body flowed like water when Naruto touched her. His presence, not to mention his radiant energy, flowed over the girl, giving her a sense of being owned; what's more, being owned by someone that actually wanted her around. As they brought the kata to an end, she gave life to her voice. "N-Naruto," she began weakly, the words dying on her lips as she mumbled something.

Naruto frowned as he looked at the shy girl, his first and only friend in the village. He was ecstatic to have her in his life now, and though he had no clue she had always been there, Naruto was assuring himself that he wouldn't let this slip from his fingers. "Sorry, what was that, Hinata-chan?"

"... I want to pledge myself to you," she whispered softly, a bit more strong than the first time, but barely at the level of a whisper.

Naruto frowned, confusion in his eyes as he looked the girl over. "I'm not very smart, Hinata. I don't understand things like that. At least not yet anyway," he informed, his joy coming out in waves near the end. "But, if you stick with me, we'll become the best ninjas ever! After all, I'm gonna become Hokage one day and I'll need someone that can keep me on my toes," he cheered, not really understanding the meaning behind his words for the love-struck girl.

Hinata blushed beet red and had to sit down in order to prevent her faint. Naruto was used to the girl taking breaks like this after he went through a kata with her. At first, he thought he may have done something to anger the girl, but he had quickly learned that Hinata loved his hands-on approach and even seemed to get the forms easier. As she took a break, Naruto, worked on his second kata, the third chapter of the book emphasizing the need of Motoki to accomplish it correctly. Naruto frowned as he focused on tightening and balancing his Chakra while going through a complex series of punches and kicks, releasing energy at certain points that created some amazing special effects.

As Naruto went through an uppercut, channeling his Motoki, he marveled as a spiraling swirl of energy followed his hand and forearm. His hand glowed brightly as he finished the strike, pushing more energy at the crescendo, followed by a low roundhouse kick, glowing from knee to toe that cracked the air with its power.

Hinata sat in lotus, meditating. It was as she began to actual train with Naruto that she truly grew to respect the boy. The first chapter's forms were actually just a series of strikes to be repeated a hundred times daily until the body moved on its own, yet Naruto had developed it into a kata, something anathema among the ninjas outside the Hyuuga Clan and the practitioners of a few styles that still remained from before the warring ages. She had no idea how Naruto had learned to create a kata on his own, but the way he flowed through the strikes was graceful and powerful, and Hinata, for the life of her, couldn't master the forms just yet. Already a week into her training and she still made simple mistakes.

If not for the way Naruto would hold her to himself and move with her through the perfectly, the girl would have given up and labeled herself a failure. But Naruto was different; he think along the lines of failures. He saw only his determination to become Hokage and let nothing stand in his way to achieve this goal. She watched Naruto as he stumbled a bit and shook his head. Apparently, the kata he was building wasn't coming together so seamlessly as the prior, or maybe it was the mixing Chakra with strikes? It sounded so similar to her Jyuuken, yet the amount of energy, unfocused as the chapter stressed, was incredible. No Hyuuga would waste so much Chakra on a simple strike, yet Naruto was throwing attacks with wild abandon.

Hinata sighed and reclaimed her feet, her center once more balanced and began going through the first kata, her body recalling the warmth of Naruto holding her. She smiled. It wasn't he first time this week either, but as she flowed through the movements, her body led her and mind settled into a state of euphoria. Time held no meaning for her and the demeaning words of her family didn't exist in this state of mind. All she saw was Naruto's promise to keep her at his side, even when he became Hokage.

The sounds of hand-clapping shook Hinata free of her euphoric mindset and she paused to turn and look a Naruto. He was giddy, smiling brightly and looking directly at her. "N... Naruto-kun?"

The blonde boy made his way right next to the girl and patted her shoulder proudly. "That's it, Hinata-chan! The way you let your mind relax and your body take over," he said proudly. "That's how you gotta do it! Let your body work so your mind can focus on your surroundings."

Hinata looked at the boy that was the same size as her and nodded firmly, her slight figure firming. "Yes... I can do this," she said with a conviction that Naruto totally believed in.

"Alright, Hinata-chan! I'll be here rooting for you!"

Hinata blushed but allowed herself to find that set of mind once more, her body taking over in ways she never imagined she could move. Her arms and legs lashing out in violent bursts and flowing int the next series of strikes. Her mind relaxed and she just moved...

Naruto watched her flow perfectly a few times before nodding to himself. "She's finally got it. Not she's just gotta do it a hundred times a day until she doesn't have to separate her mind from the movements," he assessed. He was lucky to have achieved that level the first day and went into his hundred kata that same night, followed by two hundred kata everyday his first week. After all, he had more energy than most the kids that he knew and no one to go home to, so staying out late wasn't an issue for the blonde.

Naruto went into his new kata, blasting Chakra wildly as he tried the strikes described, but it was way too hard to focus on the forms as well as the Chakra bursts. As he watched Hinata moving gracefully and superfluous, an idea struck him. He went through the kata with just the strikes a few times until he was able to do so without the needing to think on them and just let his body move, taking him through the kata with perfection.

Hours went by as Naruto added one Chakra burst at a time, his body starting to understand how to accept the strikes. It was going to take him a long time to get this kata down, but it was a start. He paused as he looked into the sky, spotting the stars. The grunting of Hinata surprised the blonde boy, as the girl usually left before the sun went down.

He looked over to the girl covered in the glow of the moon, a sheen of sweat covering her skin and adding to her glow. "Wow, she looks amazing like that," Naruto mumbled as he took in the vision of the hard-working girl. He shook his head, clearing his mind and approached the girl. "Hinata-chan," he called out softly, breaking the girl's mindset, though she continued to flow through the kata precisely.

"N-Naruto-kun?" As Hinata became more aware of her surroundings, she drew her strikes to a close and panted lightly. She took a towel and wiped her arms and forehead weakly. Her limbs were sore and her legs felt like jelly. She had never worked her young body this hard before and she was certainly paying for it now! She fell to her knees feebly and smiled up at Naruto sweetly. "I... I think I over did it a little," she offered as he eyes started to close.

Naruto smiled back and knelt in front of her, his back being displayed. "Here, I'll take you home. Just hold on tight," he commanded as the girl wrapped her limbs around his body, her face a bright cherry red as steam blasted from her ears. "Yosho! Let's go," he thundered loudly and took to the trees with more energy than Hinata thought should be possible.

'To hold Naruto-kun like this,' the thought to herself, her body relaxing into his warmth. Before her perverted mind could latch on to an image, she succumbed to her fatigue and fell asleep, all the while Naruto kept his pace, keeping the girl from being jostled too roughly.

It only took a few minutes for Naruto to reach the Hyuuga compound, but arriving and entering were two very different things. Four young ninja guarded the entrance and each turned to him as he settled on the ground and walked up, a warm smile on his face. The four sneered at the blonde boy, but said nothing. At least until he revealed the girl hanging over his shoulder. "Hey, Hinata-chan fell asleep at a training ground-" he started before one of the guards snatched her away from him and shoved Naruto to the ground.

"You don't touch her you little monster," he barked harshly, his pale lavender eyes boring holes into Naruto's chest. As the blonde looked around, he noted that the other three were doing the same.

Growling under his breath, Naruto barked back at them, "you know a simple 'thank you' wouldn't hurt, assholes!" Turning his backside to the four, he slapped his butt a couple times and leaped away. His mind raced as he considered what would happen if the Hyuuga Clan, which all seemed to hate his guts, found out Hinata had actually been training with him. He shook his head to banish the thought of new friend being taken from him and went back home, bathed and changed clothes.

***line break***

Unknown to the boy, the original owner of the 'treasure chest' was watching him with intrigue, his hands moving in patterns around a crystal ball. 'Most interesting. To think that Naruto would actually be capable of mastering the only style I couldn't wrap my mind around,' Hiruzen Sarutobi contemplated with a warm smile.

He leaned back as he packed his pipe and snapped his fingers producing a flame. Puffing a few times, the elderly ninja known as The God of Shinobi, also the Professor and Third (Sandaime) Hokage, reflected on to the many scrolls he had compiled into a series of books. The concept of a new energy had halted Hiruzen's training in its steps as his mind and body refused to accept a new type of energy. Yet, as he stared Naruto, sitting in his bed, meditating and allowing energy to flow from his body, the old man could only shake his head.

"Well, he's certainly the son of /that/ man and her," he assessed fondly, an image of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki floating through his mind, "but, I wonder how this will affect his schooling?"

***line break***

Hinata quietly approached the training ground Naruto liked to use, her face pensive and nervous. It had been two days – TWO DAYS! - since she had been carried home. The first was spent sleeping as she greatly overtaxed her body, but the second she was awake, to sore to move a muscle, but awake nonetheless.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto cheered out as he stopped his kata and ran over, his bright sunny face instantly quelling the girl's doubts. She had assumed Naruto would think her abandoning him after two days of no contact. Yet, here he was, happy as ever to see her. "Hey, I guess you really overdid it then?"

Hinata nodded demurely, her nervousness slowly fading as Naruto led her over to where he kept his book on a stump. "I finally got that second kata down! It was hard, but I just finished before you got here," he announced proudly, his hands glowing with waves of Chakra as he held them up, looking at each in turn.

Hinata marveled, gaping in awe as she looked at the raw energy being tossed about. "That's amazing," she cheered as her face came so very close to Naruto's hands. The Hyuuga heiress reached out to touch the wafts of green Chakra, feeling Naruto's determination emanating through it. "So warm..."

Naruto grinned as he allowed the energy to dissipate and rubbed at the back of his neck. With a cheesy grin on his face, he looked at Hinata. "Hey, Hinata-chan, wanna go play in the lake?" While it seemed a simple request, and it didn't show on his face, Naruto was so nervous, his heart beating a mile a minute as he waited for her to reject him. All he ever wanted was someone that would play with him.

… And to become Hokage, of course!

Hinata blushed as she nodded her head, her black hair dancing in time. 'Does Naruto-kun want to see me like that,' the girl pondered as she looked at the cheering blonde idiot, a soft smile spreading on her face. "I would like to... I want... Go Swimming, yes," she mumbled before the blonde boy grabbed her by the arm, his own interlocked with hers as he led them over to his book and pocketed it. "Alright, I brought my swim trunks with me since I was already planning to go, but if you need to go grab yours, I'll wait where I found you that day," he offered, the smile on his face reaching a new level of brightness.

Hinata nodded softly and raced away, towards her home. Internally she was grateful for this opportunity, she wasn't sure if her body was ready to go back to training yet, and good swim would help limber her body up. With her mind set, she raced along the trees until she reached the village proper and walked at a hurried pace.

"Hinata-chan, wait up!" The voice was familiar, but Hinata couldn't place it as she didn't regularly associate with anyone, at least until recently. It was Ino Yamanaka, the blonde prodigy of the Yamanaka Clan and pride of her father, Inoichi.

Hinata paused in her walking and waited for the girl to catch up. "Hello, Ino-san," she greeted softly, her voice more firm and tight than she would like to admit. Dare Hinata say it, she sounded like a normal girl.

Ino was taken aback as well before she glomped the Hyuuga affectionately. "Hinata, you're talking normally! Oh my god, that's so great, I'm gonna tell everyone! Hang on, give me a minute," Ino cheered as she turned to doorway she just left from. Within was a gathering of a dozen kids their own age, a few she knew as Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. The rest, she had never met, being made of popular girls that frequented Ino's circle.

"Hey guys, get over here," she crowed, waving at her assembled gang of friends. "Hinata can speak normally! Check it out," she enthused.

Hinata blushed, being the spotlight, but waved her hand, fondly. "It's not that serious, Ino-san," she said softly, but easily understandable and lacking in a stutter.

"Wow, she sounds so cute," gushed one of the girls, her hands squeezed together as little hearts danced in her eyes. She latched on to Hinata, dragging her into the group. "You gotta tell us what happened," she demanded, the rest of the group just as excited and leading the girl away.

Elsewhere, Naruto was splashing in the water, thinking of how great it would be to get splashed back for once, his smile never faltering, but as the sun began to fall that joy began to wan. Seven hours had passed already, and at first Naruto thought the girl might have been delayed by something important, and went into some meditation to increase his Motoki pool.

He had discovered the exercise while peeking at chapter four, irritated as he was earlier in the week at not being able to master the second kata. After five hours of expanding his pools, Naruto had jumped back into the water and played around by himself again, still determined not to give up on Hinata arriving. But now, after seven hours, with the sun on its decline, he made to leave the lake.

The blonde boy wiped at the water on his face, not that he was crying or anything. Ninjas don't cry. It didn't take long for him to get dressed and he made his way back to his secluded forest area, picking up a kunai along the way. He had no idea who it belonged to, but he would keep it. It's not like that person would miss one simple dagger. The blonde boy raced away, heading for his personal training ground and went back to his kata, adding his Chakra bursts to each strike, following the kata right through.

An entire week it had taken him just to learn the forms while adding Chakra, and now that he knew how to do it correctly, he was determined to memorize this one much like the previous.

Unseen by Naruto, as he was training, Hinata had just arrived at the lake, finding it empty. 'Of he would e gone, you idiot! You let those people drag you around all day,' she mentally chided herself, her eyes falling in glum despair. 'If he didn't hate you after abandoning him for two days, he will now, after you've stood him up.'

The Hyuuga girl felt the tears running along her cheeks as she turned away from the lake, her towel in hand wearing a blue robe over her one-piece swimsuit. Silence followed the girl as she made her way home. As her heart broke, she decided she let Naruto be, and stop being a disappointment to him. She would talk to him when school started in a few days.

***line break***

Naruto glared with hatred at a tree trunk, his now-four kunai ready, he let loose with his throw. One struck true and embedded deeply into the tree while the other went wide, clanging uselessly. Naruto frowned as he walked up to the tree trunk where four other holes were punched. Yet again, that kunai he had found struck the tree while his other ones never came close. "You must be a lucky charm," he addressed the weapon, once more alone.

He eyes sagged as he listened to the sound of wind rustling leaves. There was no longer the welcome sound of his friend Hinata training. Instead, he was just here by himself. Back to how things started so long ago. With a tired sigh, he shook his head and pulled the kunai free. Not for the first time, he wondered why and how this one kunai could hit every time, but the others went elsewhere.

He shrugged, his mind unable to stay focused on such a task for so long and he went into the overgrowth to retrieve his other three weapons.

"This is the only way, Itachi," came a hushed voice. Naruto didn't recognize the voice nor the mentioned name.

"Shisui... I can't accept that. If there can only be one way out of this situation, then we have to report it to the Hokage and the Council," came a second voice, it sounded tired and miserable.

"Who's there?" A kunai and four shuriken sunk into Naruto's body, piercing his legs and shoulder with perfect accuracy.

"YAA-" Naruto only had time to cry out in pain as Itachi appeared at his back, a kunai over the boy's throat. Naruto began to sweat bullets. This just wasn't his week!

Itachi closed his eyes slowly, blinking them back open, as Shisui smiled at the blonde boy. "Naruto-kun. I'm sorry about that, but there's some really bad people out here.," the older teen addressed as Itachi released Naruto. The pair pulled the blades from Naruto's body and marveled as the boy healed, his skin smoking with wisps of green and red Chakra.

Exchanging a glance between one another, Itachi nodded and vanished in a whirlwind of leaves. Shisui sat in front of Naruto, a bright smile on his face. "S, what have you been up to, my future Hokage? Have you been training real hard?"

Naruto grinned and nodded. Shisui had never been one of those that glared at him, and while the Uchiha never really spoke to him – thus Naruto not recognizing his voice – the young elite had often retrieved extra food and clothing or 'mistakenly' dropped off too much food money for Naruto. "Yeah! I was throwing kunai... I got one to hit the target though," he grumbled, his joy giving way to bitterness.

Shisui smiled softly. "I tell you what, I'll help you for a bit, until Itachi returns, then I have to get back to my rounds," he offered the boy, smiling warmly as Naruto eagerly agreed. "Let me see your kunai, gaki," he asked fondly. As Naruto handed the older male a set of four throwing daggers, the Uchiha instantly frowned. He took the three Naruto originally had and put them into his pouch and pulled out seven of his own, handing them to Naruto. "This will be my gift to you since I haven't gotten you anything in awhile," he said fondly.

Naruto eagerly and greedily clutched the kunai and grinned like a devil. As he watched the boy, Shisui imagined what it would be like to have a brother like Itachi did. His best friend had the good life, while he himself was alone, his family dead while on some mission or another. Seeing the bright grins of the blonde boy had made the super-prodigy feel a love for the village he hadn't ever felt before. It was this love that had turned him away from siding with his clan to overthrow Hiruzen.

"You're a very special boy, Naruto. I hope you never change," he whispered softly so that only Naruto could hear.

"Hey, are you ready to teach me to throw things, or what?!"

Shisui laughed jovially and nodded, ruffling Naruto's hair and setting about showing Naruto how to throw with accuracy. He frowned momentarily as he sensed a presence watching, but since they chose to remain hidden, he would leave it be. Naruto, as a Jinchuuriki and the village pariah would probably never get this type of opportunity to again. Whoever was calling out Shisui could wait.

***line break***

Hiruzen smiled warmly as he watched Shisui taking time out of his day to help Naruto. While the Hokage was fully capable of scrying through his crystal ball, he was as yet unaware of the impending threat from within. The thought of monitoring his loved people was not something he ever considered. Honestly, he only used the ball to check on Naruto from time to time. Thus, it came as a surprise, when Shisui's gaze hardened and he glanced to the side. Hiruzen used his ball to locate a figure dressed as an ANBU but with a marking that denoted the man as ROOT, a separate branch of underground ninja Danzo Shimura raised and employed.

With speed few knew the man was capable of, Hiruzen vanished from his room, six ANBU dogging his heels as he raced to where Naruto was. He gave a silent prayer he wasn't too late.

***line break***

Naruto marveled at the six out of seven bullseye shots he had just thrown, the seventh was a hairsbreadth out, having skirted from the target after tapping an embedded kunai's handle. "No way! DID YOU SEE THAT?!"

Shisui smiled warmly as he patted Naruto's shoulder. "Well, Naruto, I'm sorry but you're gonna have to go back home now and forget that you ever saw me here," he said softly, using a Genjutsu to force Naruto do exactly what he was told. He sighed as Naruto turned to leave, the seven kunai still in the tree where he had thrown them.

"You can come out now," Shisui addressed as he stood in a relaxed stance, hand in his kunai pouch, ready for a fight. He frowned inwardly, realizing that all he had on him were Naruto's off-balance kunai. He pulled one out and determined not to throw it as he was met by a man in a black cloak that charged him rapidly.

As the man in the cloak pulled out a short sword, Shisui held up the kunai to deflect the blade. There was a flash of light and a spray of blood...

***line break***

Hiruzen zipped by overhead, passing Naruto as Itachi led him and the six ANBU to Shisui's last location. The violent movement went unnoticed by Naruto as he walked unerringly towards his apartment.

It was as he walked, under the effects of a genjutsu that Hinata found him, having worked up her nerve to approach the blonde before school started. "N-Naruto-kun," she addressed softly as she stood to the side. Naruto continued his trek, never looking her way. Hinata, feeling courageous, spoke up. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to stand you up yesterday," she called out proudly.

What Naruto said next gutted her to the core and she sagged to the ground, unable to comprehend the reason behind it. Her heart plummeted and she like she could just die right then and there. "It's time for you to go home now, and forget that you ever saw me," he ordered, his voice flat and even, no signs of the warmth he usually displayed as he ventured on through the trees, leaving behind a shattered Hinata.

'Forget I ever saw you?' she thought in pain, clutching at her chest tightly. "B-But Naruto, I-... I love you!" she shouted with force, her voice shaking and trembling as she admitted her feelings. Her face red and cheeks filled with tears, the girl sat on the ground miserable. She closed her eyes and just let herself sob.

"I thought I told you," came a soft, warm voice, "I don't understand that kind of stuff," Naruto said cordially, having shaken off the Genjutsu at the sound of Hinata in pain, even if was only emotional pain. He squatted beside Hinata and offered her his hand, his eyes warm and inviting as they were long ago.

Hinata blinked, confusion in her eyes. Gingerly, as if unsure of herself, Hinata accepted the blonde's hand. The strength in that hand transferred to the girl and she was able to reclaim her feet. "N-Naruto... I... I tried to come back right away," she whined as tears continued to fall, her heart pleading for Naruto to listen and forgive her even if her words betrayed her now when it mattered most.

Naruto smiled at her as if nothing had ever happened and he shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I was heading home, but now I'm hungry. You want to grab a bite to eat with me," he asked, hoping the girl would accept.

Hinata nodded cheerfully, her face still a mess and as she wiped it with a cloth, the two headed for Ichiraku's Ramen stand...

"So then I told that idiot-" Ino was saying, only to pause in her monologue as her eyes fell on Hinata and Naruto heading for ramen. "Hey, what's she doing with the loudmouth?"

No longer the focus of attention, the gathered girls around Ino, turned to look outside as well, spotting the strange sight. Naruto was laughing as he spoke, walking backwards and punching the air as if he were fighting or something. Ino was the first, but the last of the gaggle of girls to chase the pair, spying terribly on Naruto and Hinata. "Hey, Chelsea, you don't think," Ino asked of one of her friends, a redheaded civilian directly beneath her in their stacked totem pole of heads.

The girl shrugged and turned back to the pair. "Naruto looks different for some reason," Chelsea addressed, her eyes roaming the preteen. Indeed Naruto looked a little more filled out, not so scrawny and he moved gracefully where before he walk like a country bumpkin, kicking his legs every which way.

"Hey, is he wearing new clothes?" asked Sakura Haruno, Ino's best friend and soon-to-be greatest rival for Sasuke's attention.

Ino blink-blinked as she took in the white shorts with an orange belt, the black ninja sandals and the tucked in white tank top. While she hadn't recalled him dressing such a way before, she could remember Naruto wearing each item on separate occasions. Shaking her head in the negative, Ino inched closer. "I'm gonna listen in on what they're saying, you girls hang back," Ino directed as she approached the pair casually.

"Ah, Ino-chan," Naruto enthused as he spotted the popular girl. Ino looked surprised, her acting beyond professional as she walked over. "Hey, we're gonna get something to eat. You wanna join us?"

Ino looked at the pair, Naruto was silly as ever, but Chelsea was right, he was definitely more solid than before, and the way he was moving, it sent shivers up her spine. It was like watching some kind of predator on the prowl. She fought away a blush as Hinata sent her a glare for staring, but she was intrigued! "Um, yeah sure why not?"

Hinata released a huff of air at the blonde girl joining them, but didn't say anything otherwise, after all she had only just returned into Naruto's good graces. But, she wouldn't let Ino sit anywhere near /her/ Naruto! "Hey, look, there's exactly three seats left," she cheered as she raced over and sat in the middle seat, her heated eyes on Ino. Sadly, her glare just looked like a normal girl's welcoming gaze.

As such, Naruto popped up on her right and Ino to her left, each smiling warmly at the girl. "Man, LUCKY! Hey, Oji-san," Naruto called out excitedly as he bounced in his seat. "I want a beef and shrimp ramen," he called out eagerly.

The old man looked up from where he was making six bowls of ramen and smiled at Naruto. "Hey, brat, you're lookin' healthy. Where you been, Naruto?"

Several patrons grumbled about the blonde boy, but none were willing to leave their ramen unfinished, so they just sat and stewed in their annoyance. Naruto never noticed this reaction as it was normal for him, but both of the girls did. "I've been out training! I've gotta get strong before class starts so I can show off my new moves-dattebayo!"

Ayame, the daughter of the owner, Teuchi, grinned like a cat at Naruto, the boy she saw as a cute little brother. "Oh really? When were you gonna show /me/ these sweet new moves," she teased, knowing how much Naruto loved showing off.

Naruto grinned like a fox as she stood on the counter, his finger pointing at Ayame. "You'll get a sneak peak right here, right now," he crowed until Teuchi swatted him for standing on his counters. Now standing on the floor, Naruto grinned even wider, making prideful little chuckles as he took the initial form of the first kata and began to move.

There was silence. Complete and total silence in the restaurant as all eyes fell on Naruto. The way he was moving, his arms and legs lashing out with power, control, precision and a grace that only a dancer would dream of, stunned them. Sure, they had seen the antiquated kata from time to time, but this was Naruto. The boy that couldn't even perform the Academy Basics correctly, looking more like berserk with a hard-on for the Inuzuka style. As he drew to a close, he grinned up at everyone, the silence still permeating the air.

"So, what'ja think, Ayame-nee-san," Naruto asked, desperate for approval. He wasn't winded in the least and actually looked like he was restraining himself, stopping himself from truly showing off, and only Hinata knew just what he wasn't revealing.

Ino gaped like a fish out of water but recovered quickly, hopping from her seat and glaring at Naruto. "Is that why you've been off on your own lately? Were you copying the Hyuuga Jyuuken for your own style?"

Murmurs were raised as several thought about it. No one had seen Naruto for the better part of a month, and while many people were happy about that little fact, hoping he'd be found in a ditch somewhere, the very thought of him learning from the Hyuuga Clan terrified them.

Naruto looked around at the gathered in consternation, his cherub-like face screwed up in a huff. "NO! Why would I want to copy some stuffy style like that?!"

Ino crossed her arms, unconvinced. "I don't where you're learning this style from, but if it's not the Hyuuga, you'd better start talking," she demanded, her eyes hard and unrelenting. Hinata stepped up to Naruto's defense though. "Um, Ino-san," the shy Hyuuga called as she stood to Naruto's left, her eyes firmly on the blonde girl, "Naruto's not using my family's style at all. We don't use fists as it's an open hand art and we rarely if ever use kicks. Naruto's kata relied heavily on kicks and fists. It's fundamentally a different art form."

Ino felt the wind go out of her sails, but held her glare any way. "I still wanna know where he learned it," she grumbled.

Naruto grinned widely at Hinata and patted her shoulder with affection. "Thanks, Hinata-chan!" As the boy bounced back into a seat, the middle this time, Hinata felt her face flush red and the room began to spin. 'N-Naruto actually relied on me to defend him,' she thought as her brain began to melt. "Oy, Hinata-chan, your ramen is getting cold," Naruto called out, his voice trembling as if a crime were taking place.

Hinata shook away the blush and ran to her seat, clapping her hands in prayer before indulging.

"Wow, did you see that," remarked Chelsea as she looked at her gaggle of friends and gossipers. "That Naruto... He's getting better... A lot better," she noted as she looked through the tent flap.

Sakura nodded, looking down at her own hands. "I wonder if I should train with him," she mused quietly as she considered that her physical skill was in the bottom of the class. She the knowledge for things, but not the Chakra reserves, nor did she have the stamina to sustain elongated spars.

The other girls considered the idea before throwing it away. "We'd rather train with Sasuke-kun," Chelsea bit back, hearts in her eyes as she went off in search of the black-haired ninja.

***line break***

With lunch being finished Naruto was more than a little annoyed at the fact that Ino was following him, a glare on her otherwise pretty face. "Come on, dattebayo! Stop following me around, Ino-san," he whined in annoyance.

Ino frowned at the way that Naruto addressed her and swatted him over the head. "Naruto-kun, I told you earlier. I want to know where you're getting this training. There's no way you suddenly get good at taijutsu," she thundered in aggravation and pointed at Hinata suspiciously. "And despite what you said, Hinata is following you to train, so I don't believe you aren't using her Jyuuken."

Naruto frowned, looking like a confused kitten as he crossed his arms under his chest. "How many times do I gotta tell you, that I'm making up my own taijutsu based on some old scrolls," he whined drolly. While he was busy complaining to himself as Ino was no longer listening, Hinata was looking around at the random people looking upon the scene in curiosity.

"Umm, Naruto-kun, Ino-san... Maybe we're being too noisy?"

Naruto managed a tired sigh and nodded his head in agreement before looking to Ino. "Look, if you really want to learn it, then give me a couple weeks to master this kata and then I'll catch you up. Deal," he offered, still unhappy with the way things had turned out.

Ino frowned prettily but nodded her head, her ponytail bobbing in time. "But, I'm warning you Naruto, if you try anything funny I'm gonna kick your butt!"

Naruto shrugged as he went back to walking, Ino and Hinata still following him around. After nearly thirty minutes of wandering through the village, Naruto finally gave in and led the pair of girls to his training grounds. As he sighed, he pulled out his book from his pouch and started to read the fourth chapter again, it illustrated Motoki control exercises and stressed how important it was to increase one's pool before continuing the book. Unfortunately for Naruto, he had no idea how big of a pol was needed for the next section and wasn't willing to crack open the next chapter just yet. At least not until he had a bit better control.

Ino watched as Hinata fell into the pattern of dance she had witnessed Naruto use in the ramen stand, only Hinata seemed a bit hesitant with certain steps. "okay, what's she doing, Naruto? It's like she's in some kind of trance," Ino noted as she waved her hands in front of Hinata's face.

Naruto looked over, a smile on his face. "She's still trying to master the first forms. If you really want to learn my style, that's where you have got to start. At the beginning with Hinata," he enthused proudly, hoping to deter the blonde girl.

Little did Naruto know just what he was inspiring...

It was a bit over three hours later when Hinata brought herself from her trance, her mind coming back to the fore of her movements. Her body was still moving on its own fluidly, but she was now aware of what was going around her. The sound of giggling was the first thing that Hinata heard. She turned her head slightly to see where it was coming from and spotted its source, freezing her solid, her movements grinding to a halt.

Ino was pressed, back to chest with Naruto as he led her through the first kata, the two embraced in the manner he had only done with herself up to this point. "I-Ino-san! What are you doing," she asked, raging loudly in her opinion, her question sounding warm and expressive to the other two.

Ino moved a little away from Naruto, a grin still on her face as she looked at Hinata. "This first form is way harder than I thought," she retorted as she walked up to Hinata. "Hey, Hinata-chan, since you're not supposed to technically train with Naruto, we were thinking that you should meet up with me at my dad's flower shop and then we'll come here together," the blonde girl asserted.

Naruto shook his head, having shot down the idea several times already, yet the Yamanaka wouldn't accept no as an answer. "Hinata, I keep telling her that it's fine for you to come here on your own. We've been doing this for a long time now, Ino," he argued, turning to his fellow blonde.

Ino shook her head. "Yeah, but it's only going to become more and more obvious when Hinata starts walking around like you do now," she pointed out, earning a confused frown from the two. "Oh god, don't tell me you haven't noticed the way Naruto walks now? I thought you had a crush on him or something," Ino drawled, the last under her breath where only a furiously blushing Hinata could hear.

Hinata shook her head, but couldn't trust her voice. Naruto on the other hand looked at the two girls strangely. "Man, I'm so lost-ttebayo!" He cast a pleading look at Ino, begging for some kind of explanation causing the girly-girl to sigh and shrug before answering.

"Naruto, the way you were walking over here it was like looking some kind of jungle cat or something. Your balance and coordination seems to be fixing itself and you don't trip over your own two sandals anymore," she pointed out, ticking the points off on her fingers as she looked at the boy. "As for Hinata-san, she used to be really shy and run away when we would speak to her until like three days ago. People will notice these things, especially in a ninja village," Ino added with a smirk.

Naruto had stopped listening awhile ago as he walked around the clearing, looking at his own backside to see if he really looked like a jungle cat, but as he couldn't find a tail, he gave up. "Whatever. I just want to train really hard so that I can pass the exams," he stated proudly.

Ino smirked and crossed her arms under her bosom. "With me to help you, there's no way you can fail! I've got the second-best Chakra-control in our year, only two points behind Sakura-chan," she praised with a grin.

Naruto nodded and looked at Hinata. "Hey, Hinata-chan, do you think we should keep her around to train with us? I suck at using Chakra," he admitted with a sheepish grin, a hand behind his head as he laughed weakly.

Hinata looked pensive but nodded. She wasn't all that great at Chakra control either and could use the assist. "I suppose it could help a lot with our ninjutsu skills," she offered, earning an emphatic and victorious nod from Ino.

"Absolutely," Ino cheered. "Now, let's get back to the first kata, Naruto-sensei," she crowed, tossing her body into Naruto's chest, practically purring at the warmth. Suddenly Hinata was changing her mind, but she couldn't voice her protest after just consenting.

***line break***

Naruto strolled into the classroom with an air of confidence that few others had ever achieved in life and as he neared a desk on the third tier of the auditorium, he slipped and tumbled his way to the floor, squawking the entire way down. Coming to a halt on the floor, he quickly popped up and rubbed the back of his head.

The classroom erupted with mirth, the tension of the first day eased so quickly. Naruto sighed at the loss of his super cool entrance, but eventually gave into the laughter as well. Besides, there would be plenty of chances to awe everyone with his presence! With a large grin plastered on his face Naruto made his way up to his seat again and sat down comfortably.

Gazing around the room, he looked for any familiar faces and spotted many. There was Kiba Inuzuka, looking rough and ready to brawl in his gray shorts and white t-shirt, Shikamaru was next, ignoring Ino as she blabbed on and on about something he didn't care about. Next was Naruto's crush, Sakura; she was dressed in a cute white skirt with pleats and a loose top that didn't restrict her movements in the least.

Naruto let out a sigh as the rest of the world faded away. It had been an entire summer of training alone and he hadn't spotted the pink-haired kunoichi the entire time. It was rather depressing. But at least he got some decent training in.

The sound of the door closing made Naruto look forward as spot two new teachers. The first was a young man with a scar across the middle of his face, while the second was a slightly taller with long purple hair and a gentle smile, even when turned on Naruto. The men spoke to each other animatedly at the front of the classroom while they waited for the students to all settle in.

A gentle poke at Naruto's left side made him look over to spot a girl he knew from the previous year, Meixing. Meixing was a pretty girl of Chinese descent, two years older than all of the other students in the class, yet she and Naruto were on their third attempt. She was wearing a long blue cheongsom with white accents and the image of a chrysanthemum on the back in gold thread. She had long black hair that was typically tied in twin odango and then braided the rest of the way down, ending at her buttox.

She smiled warmly at him and waved, the permanent fixture of the academy as she had become lately. Naruto smiled back at her and inwardly swore to himself that this was going to be his year. He was going to graduate the academy with no problems! "Hey, Meixing. Ready to pass this time?" he asked the older girl who nodded with hope-filled eyes.

"Hello, class. My name is Umino Iruka, and I'll be your primary educator," he informed the gathered children. Mizuki waved to everyone and introduced himself as well before turning the class over to Iruka. The many gathered kids were exceptionally excited to move forward and Iruka finally felt like he had found his calling...

 **End Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: After a lovely request, I have decided to announce that I DO own Naruto and Hokuto No Ken! Hahahaha! No wait, I'm here on this website posting fanfics, guess I don't own them... Hey, look at the bright side, at least your favorite series are completed unlike my fiction...

* * *

"BWAAH HAHAHA! I'M THE GREATEST," came the tremendous shout of Naruto as he stood atop the Hokage Monument, a cliff-face displaying the faces of the past four village leaders. Immediately beneath the blonde preteen's feet was the Fourth Hokage's face with swirly patterns and a black eye with a line of snot running down his nose. But, it wasn't just the Fourth that was defaced, no Naruto had managed to tag each and every face of the monument in broad daylight unseen and unhindered.

"N-Naruto, you idiot," came an exacerbated cry of dismay from his homeroom teacher, Iruka Umino.

Naruto spun on a heel and glared at the Chuunin that managed to reach his current position. "I-Iruka-sensei? How the hell did you get here so quickly?"

Iruka shook his head. "Are you kidding me? This is the most overused plot starting-point in all Naruto Fanfics," he informed as he gestured to a pile of documents. "I just went with the educated guess since you weren't in class. At least this author isn't using the 'hateful village trying to kill you on a stormy night' plot. Anyway, you'd better let me tie you up so we can continue the story along," Iruka addressed as he held up a length of rope, his voice tired and stressed.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The Master of Hokuto Ryuuken

Chapter 2

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Hey, Kiba," Naruto drawled, his eyes narrowed conspiratorially as he leaned over towards the Inuzuka.

Kiba, pretending to listen to the teacher at the front of the room, looked at Naruto, his new puppy peeking his nose out at the two, whimpering cutely. "What Naruto?"

"Hey, I need a horse to taking my training to next level," he offered slowly, as if dropping hints. Kiba growled in annoyance, but allowed his blonde classmate to continue speaking. "Since your family raises dogs and wolves I figured you might know where I can get a horse."

"Naruto, why would I know where to find a freakin' horse? They're nothing like dogs," Kiba barked back yet keeping his voice low and quiet.

Naruto frowned as he considered this new fact and leaned back in his chair. So the Inuzuka don't have horses. Who would have thunk? "Psst, Kiba," he called again as a thought occurred to him.

Kiba growled in annoyance but looked over again. "Naruto, you dolt," he insulted as he grit his teeth. "Stop bugging me before Iruka calls us out," he whispered harshly.

Naruto waved his hand casually and continued, "I heard you guys have some kind of transformation technique that can turn your dogs into humans. Can it be used in reverse? You know, turn you into a dog?"

Kiba paused in his pretend note-taking and actually considered the idea. Before he could respond a broken bit of chalk slammed into his forehead, followed by another thumping Naruto and Shikamaru - who was sleeping in class - as Iruka glared.

"DETENTION!" screamed the teacher as he used his Big Head no Jutsu.

Naruto stood up uproariously, slamming his palm into his desk. "Screw that, Iruka-sensei! Tomorrow's the last day of class!"

Iruka threw a dull kunai at Naruto, embedding it into his desk. "Then we better make that double detention for you, Naruto! Not to mention you still gotta clean the damn Hokage Monument off!"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes glaring. "I can't waste time cleaning that damn monument, I'm supposed to be training after class for the finals tomorrow," he challenged. Seated behind Naruto, Hinata shook her head, still not comfortable being the center of attention, and placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder. Naruto looked back and grinned at her in pride. "Don't worry, Hinata-chan. It won't take me too long to get the monument back to its boring old colors," he ensured with an infectious grin.

Hinata nodded her head and leaned back. She wasn't the only one concerned either as to her right was Ino with a devilish smirk on her face. "Don't worry, Naruto-kun, we'll be there to help you out," she whispered, Iruka's attention back on the lecture.

Naruto blushed and tried to hide in his t-shirt as the girl ran her toes up and down his back seductively. Hinata giggled at the action, her eyes twinkling in mirth as she perceived the action. Throughout the school year, the Hyuuga heiress had quickly learned that Ino was a playful girl, almost like kitten in the way that she enjoyed toying with boys. While Naruto was their sensei in every sense of the word, he wasn't exempt from Ino's nature and frequently found himself in compromising situations. But for all the blonde's affections, she had no real interest in Naruto and had said as much to Hinata many times.

Beside Naruto Shikamaru yawned and looked at Ino's playful foot before shaking his head in silent resignation. "Too troublesome," he complained and laid back down on his desk.

Naruto elbowed the boy and whispered harshly, "She's your damn cousin, make her cut it out!"

The Nara looked at Naruto in annoyance and turned the other way, sitting up in his seat, elbow propped on his desk top and chin in hand. "I don't see what that has to do with anything. And we're not really cousins, its just our and Choji's fathers are really close," he complained. "Why don't you ask Choji for help?"

For his part, Choji was shaking his head vehemently and crossing his arms defiantly. "Not a chance, Naruto! Trying to stop Ino from flirting and playing her games is like poking a bear," he informed, opening a bag of potato chips and digging in.

"Alright, everyone is dismissed for the day, except Naruto, Shikamaru and Kiba," announced Mizuki, another teacher for their class with light lavender hair that fell softly against the nape of his neck. "Remember tomorrow is the finals so practice really hard, everyone," he called out as the children filed out of the doorway. The last two to leave were Ino and Hinata as the girls giggled together about how 'hard' it must be for Naruto to remain seated as he had.

Naruto sent a scathing glare as he fought hard against his body's natural reactions. Damn Ino for teaching what erections were and how easy it was to grow them. Now he couldn't stop himself and it took ages to adjust himself.

"Since you three have detention with me, I'm going to give you all a pop quiz," Mizuki announced with a grin. "If you fail it, then don't even bother coming to class tomorrow as the demerits will automatically fail you for the year," he informed the gathered three.

Kiba and Naruto groaned while Shikamaru snored.

"Why is always damn tests with you teachers?" asked Kiba angrily.

Mizuki ignored the boy's complaints as he passed a sheet to each student before separating them to different areas of the classroom. "Now, there will be no talking or cheating on this exam. I'll return in ten minutes to pull you each out to the hall," he announced as he walked out of the classroom, closing the sliding door with a soft click.

The moment the man was out of the room Naruto let out a loud wail followed by Kiba and Akamaru howling at the injustice. Meanwhile, Shikamaru just finished his exam and went back to his sleeping, never noticed by the other two. "Psst, Naruto," came a soft whisper off to the side.

The blonde boy turned to spy Ino who was giving Naruto a wave. "Ino-chan, now what? I gotta take this damn pop quiz," he grumbled, raising the paper in the air and waving it about. Naruto watched as Ino buffed her nails on her top as she propped herself in the windowsill.

"For a favor each I might be persuaded to give you the answers," she offered cutely. Both boys looked at the paper and then at the blonde, then back to the paper set in front of them. With a defeated groan the boys agreed. Ino smirked as she stepped into the classroom and sauntered her way to the boy's desks, taking the papers and walking up to Shikamaru. Leaning to whisper something into his ear, the sleeping Nara woke quickly and filled out the answers swiftly before lying back down.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," groaned Kiba. "Even I make better grades than Shikamaru," he grumbled in annoyance as he was given his paper back and noticed three answers were still blank. "Hey, what gives? He didn't even finish the damn test," the Inuzuka boy complained, pointing at the empty space.

Naruto took a bit more time to go over the answers and looked up as well, spotting the same thing. "Duh, dumdums. I said I could get you passing grades, not perfect scores. You've got to answer the last three yourselves to show that you didn't suddenly become geniuses or copy each others' work," Ino offered as if speaking to slow children.

The boys grumbled but each put pen to paper, filling the final answers as Ino leaped from the window an instant before Mizuki returned. The man looked over the papers and frowned. Surprisingly, the answers were good enough to pass each of the three. "Well, you certainly passed the written portion. Now let's see how well you three operate as a team," he addressed with a dark smirk.

The three boys were led to the front of the classroom. "I've just finished setting up an exam with the Sandaime. There's a special safe in his office with a scroll marked 'Forbidden'. If you can get it, you won't have to worry about tomorrow's exams and you might even find yourselves among the elite ANBU," he offered, looking at the interest in the three kids' eyes, even Shikamaru was intrigued.

"So, all we gotta do is take some scroll from Jiji and we're done with the academy," Naruto puzzled as he eagerly rubbed his hands together. To those gathered, the sounds of gears turning in Naruto's devious mind sent a chill up their spines. "That'll be easy, especially with my awesome new jutsu," he enthused, pumping a fist in the air.

Mizuki shook his head. "No, you can't be flashy. You have to work as a team and treat this like a real life mission. Get the target and meet me at the rope-walking training ground around midnight, alright boys? But remember, you can't reveal your mission to anyone or be caught carrying it out. Don't think the Hokage will slack just because you're kids," he offered as encouragement, leaving the boys to plot.

With Mizuki gone, Naruto turned to his teammates with a huge grin. "This'll be the easiest mission ever, guys," he enthused with a large grin on his face and a thumbs-up.

"I don't know, Naruto. It sounds really difficult," Kiba considered, rubbing his chin in thought. "We already passed his stupid test today, all we gotta do tomorrow are jutsu that I've already mastered."

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, going after this scroll thing or whatever is too troublesome," Shikamaru admitted as he yawned, walking out of the room. Kiba, playing with his pet dog, followed leaving behind a depressed Naruto.

"You jerks, I don't need you guys anyway," he said harshly as he turned inward. "I'll get the scroll myself and become Hokage in no time!" With this thought in mind, Naruto made his way to the door, only to find Iruka standing there.

"Ahem, going somewhere?" As Naruto opened his mouth to say he was heading home, Iruka slapped his forehead with a sticky tag labeled 'Double Detention'. "I didn't think so, Naruto."

Naruto frowned but returned to his seat. Seeing as Iruka wasn't actually entering the room, Naruto pulled out his book from his pouch and started chapter thirty, a quarter of the way through the thick book. "Geez, I can't do this kind of training in just another thirty minutes," he whined as he looked up at the clock.

"Sure you can, Naruto-kun," came the husky voice of a young kunoichi. Naruto looked over to the window where Ino was only moments before. With Naruto's changes, he had gathered the attention of a few girls, Ino, Hinata (who always given him her attention) and the girl peering through the window, Meixing. She was older than Naruto by two years but hadn't been able to graduate just yet, always failing the final exams, except this year, she had finally mastered all of the jutsu and her aim was good enough to strike bullseye on the targets finally. She had alabaster skin without a blemish, moderate C-cup breasts - the largest in the class - long black hair that fell to her lower back and always wore Chinese dresses with high-cut splits that displayed her legs.

She was short, barely taller than Naruto himself, and held a bright smile that mirrored Naruto's. She was a failure of failures and had even witnessed other failures move past herself; but unlike the others, Naruto had given her encouragement and even helped her with her Chakra (although his Chakra control sucked nearly as bad as her own, until recently). As an orphan with no family name or clan, she had sworn her eternal devotion to Naruto and becoming what she called the first member in his clan's junior branch.

Naruto looked up at the young kunoichi in training and grinned widely. Of all the people he could now call friends, a total of five classmates and the Hokage, he really liked when Meixing was around. "Hey, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be training for the exams tomorrow? You and I gotta pass no matter what!"

Meixing cast a warm smile at Naruto, enjoying his bubbly personality. "Oh, I am practicing. The me you see is a clone I learned from Sandaime-sama," she acknowledged with a proud grin.

Naruto frowned as he walked up to the window and glanced outside. Seeing no one left on the school grounds, the blonde boy sighed. "Man, I gotta learn to keep my trap shut," he grumbled as he peered at the clock on the front of the classroom, eliciting a soft, musical giggle from Meixing.

"Why on earth would you want to do something like that? You're unique and speak from your heart at all times," she inquired while stepping into the room. "Besides, if you kept your mouth from running off I never would have received your encouragement. I'd be failing my third attempt and forced to live a civilian life like Ayame-chan," she informed, picking out one of Naruto's favorite people.

Naruto shook his head and released a deep breath. "Meixing-chan," he spoke before his eyes suddenly clouded over and a devastating smirk spread along his face promising much pain and humiliation. "How would you like to help me pull off the ultimate prank on Mizuki-sensei and Iruka-sensei?"

Meixing returned the look and the room seemed to drop ten degrees as the duo rubbed their hands together in mischief. "I'm all for a prank. What have you got in mind, Naruto-kun," she inquired as she took a seat on the edge of Naruto's desk.

Naruto leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. "Well, since Iruka-sensei ruined my last prank by breaking the 'Fourth Wall', I think we need something that will make him tremble and never want to get involved with us again," he considered as his mind began racing. Leaning back as he was, he balanced his chair on its back legs and hovered there in place.

Meixing sighed as she crossed her arms under her developing bust and stared at Naruto's whiskered face. "Since you're just gonna sit there thinking, why don't you tell me why you didn't Ino, Hinata or myself to join you in painting the Hokage Monument?"

Naruto looked down his nose at the Chinese girl and shrugged. "I'm not really sure, it just never occurred to me that you guys would want to get into any real trouble, and vandalism is a serious offense. Unlike me, you all have some semblance of a family to chastise you," he noted as he displayed a very rare use of his intellect.

Meixing sighed and leaned forward, hovering over the younger boy. "Naruto, I'm an orphan as much as you are. Hell, maybe even more as I don't even have a family name," she admitted with far too much joy in Naruto's opinion. "You, you're an Uzumaki, even if it's just a name given to you by the council, it entails you to certain rights. That's why," she paused to knock on the side of her head and stuck her tongue out cutely. "Well, I haven't really thought that line out, so I don't know where I was going with that," she admitted cutely.

Naruto lost his balance at the revelation and landed on his back with an "OOF!" Sitting up on the ground in lotus position, arms crossed over his chest, he leveled a glare on the girl. "So, I'm an Uzumaki. I've never heard of them before and no one in the school seems to be willing to teach me about them," he grumbled gruffly as his posture relaxed. "As far as I'm concerned I may as well e the first of my name!"

Meixing giggled at Naruto's expression, he really did look like a chubby fox when his eyes grew narrow and he pouted! "Naruto-kun, don't waste your time on things like that. You have me as your servant, remember? Whatever you ask I'll carry out to the best of my abilities," she crowed proudly.

Naruto sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, you keep saying that, but what the hell does that even mean? I've never had a servant before, much less seen what other clans do with them," he admitted as he got to his feet.

It was at this time that Mizuki entered the room, spotting Meixing and Naruto with a smirk. "Hey kids," he greeted kindly with a hand wave. Naruto swallowed nervously while Meixing tried to hide in her own skin. "Oh, don't worry about that. Iruka has already gone home and I won't tell anyone that you snuck into detention, Meixing."

Meixing and Naruto both visibly relaxed at the announcement and stood up. Mizuki held a hand up to forestall the pair, his eyes holding a dangerous light neither kid had witnessed before. "Remember this well, teamwork is the most vital thing a ninja can have. And as I know you can't rely on Kiba or Shikamaru, I'll let you fill Meixing in and give you the chance to work together and accomplish this special test. But, don't tell anyone else. Understood?" he asked with deathly low tones, his kill intent slowly leaking out.

Much to Mizuki's surprise, neither Naruto nor Meixing seemed to feel his kill intent and turned to grin at one another as Naruto excitedly explained the secret mission to graduate. "So, all we gotta do is get past Jiji and take the scroll from him," Naruto enthused with a wide grin and a thumbs up.

Meixing narrowed her eyes and thought this mission seemed strange, but after considering that she was this year's dead last, rather than an outright failure again, she came to the conclusion that she really had no clue how these things worked. So, giving a nod of her head, she agreed.

Mizuki couldn't have been more transparent if he held a sign out indicative of his lying setup as he smirked. Sadly, the kids were just that, children that were trusting an authority figure. 'Too easy,' he thought to himself. "Remember, bring it to the training grounds where we practiced rope-walking by sunrise," he reiterated.

Naruto nodded proudly and raced out of the classroom and into the hallways, Meixing on his heels as images of finally graduating and moving forward in life played through each teens mind.

***line break***

Sasuke sighed as he leaned against a wall across the street from the academy. There was Naruto, the former two-time failure, running from the school. This year things were different for the Uzumaki and Sasuke didn't know why. Somehow he had gone from a failure to the top of the class in Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, having scores just below Sasuke's own.

With narrowed eyes, Sasuke considered what could have possibly been happening to allow for such an increase in skill and in only a single year... "Naruto, enjoy your moment of thinking you're as good as me. I'll take you down first, then I'll kill _him_ ," he thought to himself, his eyes shifting his Sharingan, revealing two tomoe on each eye. "I'll master these eyes by tomorrow and show you what a true genius can do." With that being said, Sasuke vanished in a shushin just as a group of giggling girls arrived.

"Hey where did Sasuke go?"

"He's so mysterious and hot!"

"Yeah..."

***line break***

Kakashi sighed as he pulled a wolf ANBU mask from his face and looked into a mirror. His sullen exposed eye looked back at himself. "Tomorrow you'll get your chance. I just hope that he's not as bad as everyone says," he intoned before slipping the mask back over his face. His black cloak fluttered as he stepped out of the bathroom and walked towards a group of four additional ANBU, his squadmates.

"The day after tomorrow I'll be assigned a Genin squad. If they should so happen to pass then I expect Tenzo to step up and take over the squad," he announced firmly.

The four shuffled and Tenzo nodded his head. "I'll do as you say, sempai," he acknowledged in reverence.

Kakashi held up a scroll for each to see before duplicating it and handing them out. "We've been given a mission on the edge of Fire, bordering Rain. There's been talking of foot traffic in that region, even a few Rain ninja coming out," he informed. "We don't have much time to get there and for me to return, so let's get a move on," he ordered. The five vanished in shunshin and raced away.

***line break***

Naruto sat on his bed while Meixing sat in a rolling chair backwards, staring at her self-assigned master. "Grrr, I can't think of anything really good to beat Jiji. He's way too fast and strong to beat up," he grumbled and fell backwards on his bed.

A muffled mewl took his attention causing him to shift a little to the right, revealing a cat that had nestled into his sheets. "Hey Tora," he offered softly, earning a soft yawn from the cat. Naruto grinned at the display. His little orange cat with black stripes really did look like a tiger!

Meixing smiled at the scene as Naruto held the cat up above his head, the lazy creature just hanging there like a loose noodle. "Hey Naruto... What about sunter... Uhh, subterrainian?" she paused as she fought to recall the right word. "You know that thing where it's underneath the underneath," she finally offered, giving up on recalling the word.

Naruto frowned. "Ino and Hinata are the booksmart ones, but I know what you mean. But how will that help us in this mission?"

Meixing frowned cutely, with it appearing as a slight pout. "Well, what if we looked like someone he wouldn't notice?"

Naruto looked at the girl and grinned. It was a devil's smirk if Meixing ever saw one and it made her heart flutter to think that she had put it on his face. "Hey, I'm great at Henge! Did I ever tell you about the Oiroke no Jutsu?"

Meixing stared at Naruto in puzzlement. "Oiroke...? Naruto, are you a pervert after all?"

Naruto dropped the cat who plopped on his face and stayed there, purring in content. "I'm not a pervert... Completely anyway," he added to the end as he recalled what he had done to master the technique.

This line, however had earned Meixing's curiosity. "Hey, Naruto... How are you speaking clearly through a cat's body?" She had heard of high-level ninja doing so, but Naruto wasn't someone she considered to be particularly high-ranking.

Sliding the protesting cat from its perch, Naruto sat up and looked into Meixing's eyes, his own twinkling in mirth. "Hey, that underneath the underneath thing just might work," he exclaimed, completely ignoring the girl's questioning. "Jiji's an old pervert and I'll bet I can knock him out with a nosebleed!"

"Just ignore my question," Meixing sighed with downcast eyes.

"Hey, I'm gonna need your help and I'll even teach you my super awesome jutsu!" As he said this Naruto leaped to his feet and began pulling random magazines from around his room, even a few posters. "Yes, this one will do," he considered as he looked at one particular magazine and moved away to another.

Meixing blinked a few times at the sheer volume of magazines that Naruto was bringing out. "Naruto, where did you get all of these and how come I've never seen them? I clean your room everyday," she inquired as she plucked a magazine in particular. This one showed a girl with long red hair, wearing wearing brown leather clothing that fit skintight as she played with two bladed yo-yos.

Naruto looked up at the girl and grinned. "Well, I didn't want Ino finding out I had these. She's bad enough as it is already," he offered with a smirk. "Can you imagine what she would be like if she read some of these things on how to _actually_ seduce guys?"

Meixing giggled at the thought and nodded her head. Sure the blonde girl was a tease and knew how to fluster even some of the adult men in the village, but true seduction was not in her retinue just yet. "I see your point. Now why exactly are you showing these to me?"

Naruto nodded proudly and held up his thumb, hand set sideways like a painter judging a scene. "I'm gonna teach you my own version of Henge," he offered.

Meixing blinked and looked at the boy in curiosity. "But, Henge is Genjutsu, and you still suck at high level Chakra control like that," she returned.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, an odd-sight considering that the girl had just insulted his skills. "That's true, but I made Henge into a Ninjutsu!"

"A Ninjutsu," Meixing mouthed, trying to get her mind around it. "You mean, an actual transformation?"

Naruto nodded proudly. "It wasn't easy and I'm not sure if would hold up to a medical exam or not, but I look the part," he offered, before giving a handseal and changing. A cloud of smoke filled the room obscuring everything from sight and forcing Meixing to wave her hand about.

"Oiroke no Jutsu!"

Meixing searched the smoke for the source of the voice fruitlessly. But slowly the smoke began to fade until a cute blonde girl could be made out, her naughty bits barely hidden by the wafts of smoke as she winked and blew a kiss at Meixing.

Meixing went pale and pointed at the girl. Words seemed to fail her as her mind short-circuited and she could only stare dumbly.

"So, what do you thing," asked the cute female voice, her twin blonde pigtails reaching her ankles. She appeared around sixteen or so and aside from the whisker marks Meixing would never have considered the much taller girl to be Naruto. Even the feel of Chakra in the girl flowed slightly different, the difference being what it felt like to be around another girl instead of a boy.

"That's... This is amazing, Naruto! How did you do this," she wondered as she began to walk around Naruto, pushing the modesty clouds out of the way to see that all the bits and parts were where they should be.

Naruto blushed as Meixing squeezed her boobs. "Um, Meixing-chan, that's a little familiar don't you think?" she asked.

Meixing looked up at the blonde girl and frowned prettily. "So you can even feel everything?" she asked.

Naruto nodded and released the justu, returning to his short self, clad as he was in a pair of gray shorts and white t-shirt with a spiraling sun on the chest. "Yeah, and the best part is. Once you start the jutsu, it doesn't require Chakra to feed it like a Genjutsu does. So even if you get knocked out and captured no one will know who you really are," he added as he pointed a finger upward as if giving a lecture.

Meixing nodded. "This jutsu... If you could tech it to all the kunoichi we could move through villages as men and not have to worry about the more sordid details of capture and investigation," she considered. That was one fear that had always played on her mind.

Naruto scratched his forehead and looked at the girl in confusion. "Sure, I guess. But why would you want to be a guy for Oiroke," he asked.

Meixing shook her head as she pounced on the bed, tackling Naruto's cat and rolling to her back with the cuddly creature on her belly. Gently stroking the beast, she looked over to Naruto. "Not the pervy jutsu in particular, but the use of a real transformation could be used for just about anything," she admitted as the world opened up to possibility in her mind.

Naruto shrugged, still not really understanding what she may have meant. "Anyway, You have to learn the Oiroke today to pull off the plan tonight," he reaffirmed with a head nod.

Meixing smiled at the beast on her belly and agreed. "Sure, where do I start? I saw the handseal, but I've only ever used it for the Genjutsu version." she offered in reply.

Naruto and Meixing quickly fell into talk of the dynamics of the jutsu and the theory behind it, for as limited as their knowledge was...

***line break***

Ino looked over to Hinata as the pair of girls entered the flower shop together. "Hey, Hinata. How much do you actually like Naruto?"

Hinata stumbled as she stepped through the doorway and barely caught the edge of a shelf to save her some self-respect. Glowing an atomic red, she looked at Ino askance, scandalized as she was. "U-Um... In-Ino-san... I-I-I... Naruto..."

Ino smirked and nodded, watching as Hinata suddenly last the entire last year of corrected speech and confidence. "I see. Have you told him yet?"

Hinata managed to shake her head as words seemed to fail her. "I-... Yes, but... He..."

Ino sighed as she watched her friend continue to stammer. "Hinata, we've got to get you ready to really talk to Naruto, outside of just training," the last she added as an afterthought when she noticed Hinata going to say that she has been speaking to Naruto. Being halted in her protest, Hinata closed her mouth and let her shoulders sag. "That can wait for a little while. Hey, who do you think we'll get teamed up with?"

Hinata, with a subject that didn't make her stutter, was finally able to speak comfortably. "I'm not sure, but I doubt we'll be with Naruto at all," she admitted glumly.

Ino raised an eyebrow. "Why would you say that?"

Hinata continued to follow Ino through the store until they emerged in the back where a training ground was set up. "Because of out family traits. While we're really good at Taijutsu, our kekkei genkai will be taken into consideration. With my Byakkugan, I'm a sensor type. So I'll probably be put into a group of trackers or heavy defense fighters to keep me safe while I act as a scout," she offered.

Ino nodded and gave a defeated sigh. "Darn, you put a wet rag on my parade. I was hoping to get teamed with Naruto and Sasuke-kun," she admitted. "I mean can you imagine what it would e like to be surrounded with so much manliness?!"

Hinata shook her head at the hearts floating in Ino's eyes.

"But, you're right. With my family ability and clan history, I'll be stuck with Shikamaru and Choji... Sometimes I wish this village would get rid of such antiquated traditions. So who do you think Naruto and Sasuke will be paired with?"

Hinata frowned at the blonde. "I'm not so sure that they will even be on the same team. Sasuke I the Rookie of the Year for the boys. Usually the deadlast and girl's Rookie of the Year are put together on that team. Naruto's only a couple of points behind Sasuke in the physical arts and far behind in studies, that makes him a mid-range student so I can't see him on the same team as Sasuke," she offered.

Ino sighed and held her chin in her hand as she posed in an overly feminine fashion. "You're really killing my buzz here Hinata. You're telling me that Sakura will be on Sasuke's team no matter what and that neither of us will even have the chance of being on Naruto's team," she asked.

Hinata nodded. "If it makes you feel better, Meixing is this years dead last, so she'll be there to interrupt Sasuke and Sakura for you," she offered sweetly.

Ino sat on a log and sagged in defeat. "Great, so my biggest rival and my best friend are going to be on the same team as the village heart-throb and I'll be stuck with two useless idiots... My training better not suffer from this," she whined as she threw her hands in the air.

Hinata giggled softly. "Well, if you really want to get better, you should hurry and finish Chapter Three," she teased as she pulled out her copy of the revised training manual Naruto had written for the girls, giving special notes for how he surpassed obstacles and giving greater details for the flowing of Kata. She herself had made it to Chapter Seven after an entire year of practicing under Naruto.

Ino nodded and stood, her body flowing through the second kata using pure Taijutsu as her body once more took control and freed her mind to add in bursts of Chakra. "Yeah, I've gotta get this mastered."

Hinata smiled fondly. "Don't be so down on yourself. It's not really your fault that your Chakra pool was so slow. It took me six months myself, remember? "

Ino smiled at her friend as she continued flashing through strikes, growing in intensity as more and more battle aura pumped through her. 'Those Chakra-building exercises in the book are so much better than anything the academy could teach us,' she thought proudly. When she had started, her supply was decent, good even for a low level Chuunin and she had amazing control over it, but to even reach her current chapter it had taken most of the school to boost her reserves.

Now though, her reserves had multiplied by a factor of ten! And even with that amazing boost, she was barely at the same level as Sasuke. This meant she could perform the second kata, but a full day of training would knock her out for nearly two days. Not for the first time, Ino wondered just how much Chakra Naruto truly had.

Hinata took a set in lotus position, a newly installed artificial waterfall set beside her. It was important to keep flowing water nearby when working on their aura as it easily overheated the person training. As her Chakra spilled forth, pumping freely from every external tenketsu, Hinata's skin went dark. A palpable white steam began to roll from her mouth, eyes and nose with every breath.

Wispy tendrils of pure Chakra danced in the air like the fires of Hell, swirling up and down the Hyuuga's form ringing out like a heavy bell's toll. The steam pouring from her mouth formed a shadow in line with the shadow on the ground. The shadow began to cast a palpable light and exploded outward, resembling a wildfire with a pair of eyes revealing patches of unshaded grass. A sinister, fanged, mouth smirked and widened to a snarling roar...

Hinata gasped loudly as she fell out of her trance, sweat pouring off of her and her skin literally burning the moisture off. She quickly hopped under the running water her body hissing like a hot iron under the flow. "I almost had it," she whispered. Ino never noticed as she continued her deadly dance.

***line break***

Naruto bit back a laugh, sniggering as he took in the figure of Meixing. "I... I can't believe you did that! Bahaha!"

Meixing, currently sporting a cat's tail, a body of orange fur and cat ears atop her head, frowned cattily. Naruto totally lost it and fell to the floor, holding his sides as he pointed. "It's not funny, nyah," Meixing half-meowed in annoyance. Her pretty features perfectly matched the male fantasy of a furry catgirl as she pouted and propped her hands on her hips.

Naruto looked up and pointed again, but wasn't able to say much.

As Meixing's tail swished side to side, she let out a deep rumbling growl. "Help me-ow figure out how to change back, nyah," she frumped, rather displeased with her results.

Naruto finally managed to get his laughter under control. "Why the hell did you try transforming with Tora-chan anyway," he asked around the last of his laughter.

Meixing sighed as she sauntered over to the bed and sat down, her tail dancing softly to and fro. "I heard guys like catgirls, nyaaah, so I thought I would see if worked," she whimpered.

Naruto bit back a laugh as the girl mewled again. With great effort he was able to hold back his laughter. "Have you tried using the Henge again to separate?"

Meixing looked up in surprise and grinned. "No, nyah!" With vigor, the girl folded her hands into the seal and pictured herself and cat as separate creatures. It was a bit more smoky than earlier, but the single catgirl found herself and Tora as two different beings. "Yay, nyah," Tora cheered before locking eyes with Naruto.

Meixing meanwhile stretched like a typical cat and curled into a ball on the bed, sleeping again.

"Bahahahaha!"

"Nyaaaah, Naruto-kun don't laugh," the cat cried.

It took a few hours to get Meixing back to normal and Tora seemed content to wear her form for the time being, so Naruto left the cat (err, girl?) alone. Meixing looked at the content animal and frowned before turning her gaze upon the blonde boy. "Okay, I think I've got it now, So should we head out to the Hokage's now?"

Naruto grinned and gave a thumbs up. "Yeah! This is gonna be so great," he enthused. "Just remember we gotta be really fast. It doesn't matter if your quiet and get spotted being slow. If you knock something over and get out of dodge quick enough people tend to ignore it," he informed.

Meixing stared at Naruto in awe. This would be the first stealth prank that Naruto would allow he be on with him and it amazed her how much he knew about getting in an out of situations. "What about our exit strategy?" she asked. "In academy they always stress how important it is to plan an escape route," she pointed out.

Naruto smirked and thumbed his nose. "Don't need one. Once we get the scroll everyone is gonna be coming after us, so we run until we lose them," he advised sagely. "If you get cornered use a kawarimi and Henge into someone no one will notice," he added as he pulled his bedroom window open.

Meixing felt her heart racing as she followed Naruto to the open glass and stared into the night. "I can do this," she whispered to herself.

Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder and sent a confident smile. "Yeah, let's show everyone what we're made of. You and me, as a team. We'll kick ass and take names," he enthused.

Meixing nodded, her case of nerves subsiding a bit. "Alright, let's get going," she afforded sounding far more confident than she was. With no further prompting, Naruto leaped away and took off across the rooftops, his orange on orange jumpsuit hidden in the waning twilight of the day. Meixing, seeing this smiled herself and jumped out as well, racing to catch up to Naruto.

Standing a stall, Tsume Inuzuka looked up and watched as a couple kids raced along overhead. "Damn kids. I bet that Naruto's taking her on a date," she considered as she thought about Naruto's parents fondly.

Tsume wasn't the only one to notice the duo racing along, Chouza Akimichi happened to be walking through town with his son, both munching on his own favorite snack as he spotted the kids. "Hey, isn't that Naruto and the deadlast girl," he asked his son.

Choji nodded as he stuffed another handful of chips in his mouth. "Yeah. They hang out together a lot. I think it's cause their both orphans or because they were about to flunk out this year. I don't really get it," he offered with a shrug.

Chouza stroked his chin in thought. "You'll understand when you get a bit older, son. I just hope Naruto isn't getting up to anything dangerous tonight," he voiced before shrugging and wandering off.

Anko Mitarashi, Special Jounin, narrowed her eyes as she saw Naruto bringing along an accomplice with him. "This should be entertaining," she considered as she looked at the duo. While she had never met Naruto, much seen his face, the blonde hair on his head was a dead give away. With a dastardly smirk, she followed along with all the stealth she was capable of, traversing the village in the shadow of the two kids.

***line break***

After a few minutes of jumping Naruto and Meixing alighted on the awning under the Hokage's office window. The blonde boy grinned broadly and gestured for his subservient to follow along. He leaned up over the edge f the window and spotted his target filling out paperwork as he fought a losing battle to sleep.

Dropping back down, he looked at Meixing. "He's in there and not really paying any attention," Naruto informed excitedly. Meixing's own eyes mirrored Naruto's.

The two teens, only witnessed by a hidden Anko leaped through the window and rushed Hiruzen. "Jiji, I need your Forbidden Scroll," he challenged loudly which through the man for a loop.

"My Forb-" his words were cut off as Naruto opened with a right fist that made the Hokage leap away. Flashing his hands through seals, he summoned two binding gates that pinned Naruto and Meixing to the floor. "What's this all about Naruto?" he asked in curiosity. Sure he could have taken Naruto with little effort, but he had no desire to hurt the boy.

Naruto looked up, his tongue poking from the side of his mouth as he struggled to move. "Just tell me where it is," he pleaded, catching the slight movement of Hiruzen's eyes towards a hidden vault. With a gleam of mischief in his eyes, Naruto poofed into smoke, revealing a log.

As Hiruzen spun on his heel, he saw Meixing performing the same tactic and heard twin voices. "Oiroke no Jutsu!"

As he finished his turn, he felt his face meet something soft and warm. The old man looked up into the eyes of a busty blonde girl with twin pigtails, her lovely blue eyes sparkling with mirth as she hugged the fossil to her breasts. "Oh, Jiji, you make me so excited!"

Slipping up against his back was a tall lean young woman with long raven black hair that flowed freely, her onyx eyes on the edge of Hiruzen's vision as she squeezed her bare breasts into his back. "The way you make feel when you touch my body~" she purred seductively into the old man's ear. (I imagine Rei Hino from Sailor Moon as compared to Naruto being a play-on of Usagi Tsukino)

Hiruzen wasn't long for this world and collapsed in a spray of blood.

The two snickered as they made their way to a vault and pulled it open. For some strange reason it wasn't locked. Neither teen cared about such details and they rummaged through the scrolls inside. "Ah," cried out Naruto as he pulled a massive scroll from the safe that should by no means have ever fit in the small storage device. "I've got it, now let's go before the ANBU find us," he cheered loudly.

Meixing nodded and followed Naruto out of the office quickly.

Anko, following along as she was narrowed her eyes dangerously and toyed with a kunai in her hand. "What's going on here?" she pondered as she dashed after the kids. It took another ten minutes before alarms began to blare and in that time Anko had followed Naruto and Meixing into the woods far from the main village. Naruto propped the scroll up against a rickety old shack and grinned like a loon as he and Meixing took a moment to catch their breath.

"Hey, I wonder what's inside," he pondered as he started to unfurl the scroll.

Meixing looked a little pensive, but sat to his side and looked on. "Kage Bunshin? I suck at clones," Naruto wailed as he looked at the description. With a sigh he shrugged and passed the scroll to Meixing.

The Chinese girl rubbed her chin in thought and started pulling the scroll further back. "Wow, there's a lot of jutsu in here," she remarked in awe.

Naruto shrugged and stood to his full height. "I'm gonna try this Shadow Clone thing," he commented as he formed the seal for it. "Too bad Ino's not here, she's fast at learning these jutsu," he noted as a cloud of smoke filled the air, leaving only obscured vision for all.

"Cough-cough! Naruto, i can't see anything now," Meixing bemoaned as she waved at the air uselessly.

Anko, hidden as she was narrowed her eyes when she saw one of Naruto's clones a mere five feet from her. Her kunai slashed out quickly and burst the nearest threat to her proximity. It wouldn't do to be spotted and the fact there were nearly a hundred copies, the special Jounin wasn't about to take chances.

"Hey, hey Meixing! Check it out! I got it on the first try," all the clones cheered as one.

The Chinese girl shook her head and looked at the jutsu currently under thumb. It was really, really complex and it involved using seals and space-time jutsu. "I think I'll keep this one. One day I'll be a super kunoichi and I'll show everyone who's boss," she cheered as she wrote out, word for word and image for image.

Unfortunately, Anko missed this as she was busy avoiding a few clones that were chatting idly while taking a piss in the bush next to her. "Man, I've been holding this in since we left the academy," complained one of the blonde boys.

"I know, tell me about it," came the reply of a second as he positioned himself.

A third wandered over to where Anko was hidden and pulled trousers down, showing himself to the kunoichi who paled before stabbing the clone midsentence. "I don't know what you-" he was saying before turning to smoke.

The other two looked at him and shrugged. "What's his deal?"

"Unstable matrix, maybe?"

Anko released a soft sigh. That was way too close.

Elsewhere Naruto was poking his clones with sticks to pop them. "Geez, I have no idea what the use of this jutsu is if you can't just pop them all at once," he whined as he poked number fifty. "Next," he called out.

Meixing was happily humming a tune to herself as she stared at the village swarming with activity. "Another six hours until sunrise, then we can turn in the scroll," she remarked with a soft smile on her round face.

Naruto glanced over at the girl with a smile. "Well, what do you want to do until then?"

Meixing stood to her own feet and stepped lightly around the abandoned shack, thinking with a soft humming noise. "Naruto. What do you want more than anything..." she paused in her inquiry as she saw the blonde about to shout about becoming the Hokage. "I mean, other than being Hokage. Do you want to rebuild the Uzumaki Clan or become some famous S-class ninja?" she pondered.

Naruto actually paused to think about the question. "I don't know really. I have no idea what a clan is useful for," he admitted with a light shrug. "And I'll definitely be famous! I'll be the strongest ninja ever," he crowed boastfully, yet Meixing believed him. Believed _in_ him.

With admiration in her eyes she spoke, "whatever you decide Naruto. I want you to promise me that I can be there with you." She gazed with her onyx eyes at the blonde boy and watched the words play through his mind. "I know I say this all the time, but if not for you... I would have been a drop out this year. I owe you a life debt for that," she swore.

Naruto nodded to the girl and pulled out a kunai, slitting his palm. "On my own blood, I swear I'll never leave you behind, Meixing," he vowed in all seriousness. As the mood stretched into silence, Naruto spoke up again. "What I really want is a horse so I can finally start the second book," he considered.

Meixing giggled at the thought before her eyes glazed over in consideration. "What if... What if I could turn into a horse, like I turned into Tora-chan," she asked aloud, thoughts playing through her mind.

Naruto looked over, not really paying attention as he poked at another clone. "Huh, what was that, Meixing?"

The girl waved her hand at Naruto. Nothing, I'm gonna go over here and try some of these jutsu," she called out as she entered the shack, leaving the scroll beside Naruto.

After nearly an hour of bursting clones, Naruto finally came to the last one, and Anko ha decided it was time to grab the Forbidden Scroll, only she wasn't the only one to announce their presence. "Naruto, there you are," came the relieved voice of Iruka. Anko went back into hiding, wanting to get to the bottom of whatever was going on.

Naruto grinned as he held up the scroll. "Hey Iruka-sensei! I got the scroll, but I was waiting for daybreak to bring it to you guys," he cheered.

Iruka frowned and as he looked at the blonde boy's bright and sunny disposition. "What the hell are you going on about, Naruto? You stole a very important scroll from the Hokage's office and even attacked him," he stated seriously, his eyes hard as he stared at his problem student. "You've gotta come with me right now to give that scroll back."

Naruto frowned. "But, what about the mission? Mizuki-sensei told me I was chosen to perform it this year," he shouted argumentatively. He reached to his side and grabbed up the scroll while looking at his teacher. "If I don't bring it to him, I won't graduate," he shouted with firm eyes.

Iruka scratched his neck in wonder. "Secret mission. I wasn't told anything about it, and I'm the one who oversees mission assignments, Naruto."

"Hey Naruto, you actually did it," came a husky, but fond voice as Mizuki appeared in a tree branch, dressed for combat. "Iruka just doesn't know what's going on. Hokage-sama was really impressed with your performance. Now hand over the scroll and we'll get you graduated," the newly arrived Chuunin dictated, his hand extended.

Naruto frowned and looked at both of his nice teachers in confusion. "Wait, something's not adding up here. You guys always know what's going on together. Why doesn't Iruka-sensei know what's going on?"

Meixing within the shack remained hidden, her eyes peering around the corner in speculation. She wanted to stand at Naruto's side, but she sucked at combat. The best she could hope for was planting a distraction for Naruto to escape if that's what it came down to. She stretched her fingers, readying for handseals.

Back outside, Naruto was listening to his teachers throw insults at each other in concern. "Why would you listen to Iruka? He's lying to you. Just like everyone in this village has always lied to you," Mizuki called out, his face growing sinister.

"No, Mizuki, don't you dare! It's forbidden by the Hokage," Iruka shouted in growing concern.

Mizuki threw a massive Windmill Shuriken at Naruto that sailed unerringly. As the blonde's eyes widened, Iruka was suddenly in front of him attempting to shield the boy. After a few moments of silence and not feeling pain, Iruka pulled away from Naruto and turned to see something he had never pondered.

Naruto began to smoke as Chakra poured out of him, a green shade of energy rose from his body and leaked from his facial orifices and tenketsu. His orange jumpsuit billowed in an unfelt wind and as Iruka turned to see Mizuki's shocked face, he spied the windmill shuriken held aloft by pure Chakra, floating in air as electricity crackled. If that wasn't a big enough surprise, Naruto's voice was.

" **What secret, Mizuki-sensei?"** the blonde asked as his voice was changed to a deep baritone, his Chakra making the air vibrate. The strangest thing of the scenario was the fact Naruto's shadow started stretching along the ground, widening then lengthening over and over as it formed into a demonic face.

Neither Mizuki nor Anko were able to get outside of its reach fast enough and themselves lifted alongside Iruka to float with their limbs pulled to the extremes. They came to a position in front of the demonic child as he released a kill intent none had felt since _that_ night.

Anko shivered and struggled to move, but she was quickly found that her body refused to respond. A glance to Mizuki showed the man had gone so pale in the face that he resembled a ghost, though it didn't last long as he passed out.

Naruto took a single, solitary step towards the helpless three Konoha ninja, the ground crushing under his foot as he moved. **"What secret? I've had enough people telling me lies. Someone tell me the truth,"** Naruto demanded as he pulled a the limbs harder, popping Iruka's arms out of socket and literally ripping Mizuki to shreds.

Iruka balked at the raw display of power and wondered how long Naruto had been hiding this. He also wondered if maybe he had been wrong about Naruto after all.

"That's enough, Naruto, my boy," Hiruzen said softly as he and Asuma stepped into the clearing. Naruto looked at his grandfather figure and nodded, dropping the two ninja to the ground unceremoniously.

Asuma exhaled a blast of smoke from his lungs as he finished his crumpled cigarette. "Naruto. That's one hell of a jutsu you've got there," he greeted with a smile.

Naruto grinned through his Motoki cloak and allowed his **Genma Erie*** to subside. "Yeah. Sorry for killing Mizuki-sensei but he did try to kill me and Iruka-sensei first. So, what's this big secret huh?!"

Both Sarutobi men smiled at the bundle of energy as he looked between the pair of them and the ashen-faced ninja he'd just released. Hiruzen chuckled softly. "Well, I had hoped to tell you about this a long time from now, but it appears you've pushed my hand," he acknowledged with a kind smile.

"Meixing, come on over here. I'm sure you'll be needing to know as well, since you're his ward," he called towards the shack. The old man released a breath he hadn't been aware of holding as he relaxed. 'To think that Naruto has already progressed this far... I don't think even Hinata knows about this,' he thought as he shook his head.

It wasn't long for Meixing to show herself, as the girl stepped out of the house, putting away her itching powder bombs and kunai. "Hokage-sama," she offered weakly as she stood beside Naruto.

The blonde boy grinned widely and wrapped his arm over Meixing's shoulder affectionately as he tossed Asuma the Forbidden Scroll. "So, does that mean we passed this test?"

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow and looked at his son in confusion. Asuma shrugged as he checked that the scroll was indeed the real deal. "What test are you talking about Naruto?"

As Naruto and Meixing spoke to the Hokage about what Mizuki had said, even mentioning that he had initially approached Kiba and Shikamaru as well, Anko began to regain her wits. As pale as her former master, Anko looked as her palms. 'Is this really the gap between a Jinchuuriki and a normal ninja,' she asked herself while her hands trembled.

Flexing her fingers, Anko managed to slow the tremble a bit, but with her throat dry and her knees still weak, she couldn't find the strength to do more than sit in the dirt. A shadow loomed over her and made her flinch, looking like a frightened child, she peered up into the concerned eyes of Meixing.

"Hey, sorry about that. Naruto doesn't usually unleash his full Genma Erie very often," she offered softly, placing a water bottle to the ninja's mouth and allowing her to drink. "It's affects wear off in a few hours usually," she afforded before greeting and doing the same for Iruka.

"Am I really so weak," Anko asked in concern. If Meixing heard her, the girl made no notions to reply before she hurried back to Naruto's side. Anko found herself at a distinct lack of ability to truly fathom Naruto or his power, but she was determined to learn this power. She managed to look over at Naruto and saw the same bubbly blonde boy she had always seen.

That boy that raced across the village shouting at adults that treated him unfairly and pulled pranks on authority figures throughout the community. That same brat that everyone saw as a fool and demon was truly a monster with Chakra possibly on par with Hokage-sama...

While she was reflecting, The Sandaime Hokage and Asuma were sitting with Naruto and Meixing after explaining what the truth behind the seal and the fact that Naruto was in no way related to the Kyuubi that attacked. This led to questions from Meixing.

"Hokage-sama, I know Naruto's surname is Uzumaki, but is he really an Uzumaki or did you just tag that name onto him," Meixing asked, her eyes stern and determined. This was an important question to her and Hiruzen could easily see that.

"Can I withhold that information for the time being," the elderly man asked while Naruto looked at the dirt disinterestedly.

Meixing shook her head vehemently. "No, Hokage-sama. I've sworn my fealty to Naruto, and I need to know... I need to know if he might have a real family out there somewhere," she finished the last part almost in a whisper as she felt her chest tighten. The dream of all orphans was to find family. Someone that would accept them as a whole and show them the love they witnessed the other kids receiving.

Hiruzen pulled a pipe from his Kage robes and stuffed it with a bit of tobacco. "The truth is," he began before turning to his son, asking for a light. Asuma lit the pipe as his father puffed away. "Naruto has two parents that were exceptional. His father was the most revered ninja in this village's history and his mother was indeed an Uzumaki, perhaps the last at that."

Meixing noted Naruto perk up and actually start to pay attention. "What are were their names?"

Hiruzen smiled at the girl who asked before placing a gentle hand on her head. "That's another S-class secret in the village. You see, both of your parents were super elite ninja, even stronger than me," he praised, earning a wide grin from Naruto. "They also had big enemies. Entire nations would unite just to try to even the odds.

"If they knew about young Naruto here, even as strong as he is now, then the whole village would be ransacked. Every nation out there would ally against us just to kill Naruto," Hiruzen stated plainly. It was a fact of life among shinobi. Either you coveted it or you possessed it. Konoha possessed it and everyone else coveted Naruto; both as a Jinchuuriki for the Nine-tails and for his lineage.

"So, you can't say their names at all? Not even to just Naruto," Meixing demanded with a frown. "Can you at least clarify if he's an Uzumaki? The history books only speak of red hair, and he's a blonde," she pointed out.

Asuma chuckled as his father sighed in defeat. "He's definitely an Uzumaki," Asuma noted. "His mother was known as the Red-Hot Habenero for her hair and temper," he added with mirth.

Both orphans looked to be satisfied with the answer and nodded to one another. They finally had the answer that thy had needed. Finding out about the Kyuubi was really scary, but Meixing didn't look at Naruto any different. She would still give her life for the boy, the blonde Uzumaki...

 **OoOoOoOoO**

 **AN: Here's a glossary of terms you may not be familiar with. I'll try to include one of these when I add some stuff that's not common to Naruto fanfics.**

 **Motoki - I believe the translation is Evil Battle Aura, it's a visible energy utilized by practitioners of Hokuto Ryuuken. It's malleable and can be use to rip things to shreds when directed.**

 **Genma Erie - Magical Spirit/Evil Shadow. This shadow commonly displays itself as a demonic face and when used on lesser foes or those that cannot escape it's affects, it can and will rip the target into meaty chunks of gore. It also works in a similar fashion to Kill Intent as someone unsuspecting will find themselves in pitch blackness and feeling cold and disconnected from the world to the point that they cannot think straight.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I Do not own Naruto or Hokuto no Ken.**

 **AN: Okay, before I even start this chapter, I want to address something. The names used in the team assignments are nothing more than placeholders as I did tell you that additional Jounin were taking on teams. Do not expect any of them to be crossover characters, and don't expect any to have a substantial role in the story. I won't mention these characters except in passing through this story and possibly in the Chuunin exams.**

Naruto grinned like a loon as he sat upon the back of the first recorded ninja horse, Meixing. Affectionately, he stroked her neck eliciting a soft noise from the transformed kunoichi. The blonde boy took a moment to look her battle dress over, an obsidian helmet with three sharp blades that raced up the center of the horses head, a sturdy saddle with an under coat that hung down her sides made of the same material as flak jackets that protected her sides, what looked like pant legs were cut to size on each of the mare's legs and her tail was left loose to flutter as Meixing willed.

All in all, her Man-Beast Transformation was amazing! It still made Naruto a bit apprehensive that his best friend had opted to become his animal partner, but he had learned already about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

"You look so awesome, Meixing-chan," the young ninja enthused as he leaned forward, nuzzling the horse, forgetting for a moment that she was very much a normal young woman.

"Um, Naruto-kun," the horse whispered with a rising blush, coloring her pure white coat of fur. "Doing that is _really_ distracting."

The Uzumaki boy laughed boisterously as he rubbed his nape. "Bahahaha! Hey, Meixing, who do you think our teammates will be? Maybe Sakura-chan," he wondered with a faint blush, scratching at a whisker.

The horse gave an annoyed whinny as she began to trot, heading for the school. "Honestly Naruto-kun, I don't know what you see in her. She's rude and always hits you," Meixing remarked rather irritably, her Motoki beginning to leak from her eyes, noise and mouth which caused the otherwise stunning warhorse to appear demonic.

"Maa-maa, easy there. I can't really explain what it is about her, but she just make me feel all funny inside," he explained while stroking Meixing's mane appeasing the young animal. The horse-girl calmed considerably, the roiling red mass of Chakra dissipating in the air like smoke from a cigarette.

"Naruto-kun, what if I decided not to become a kunoichi and just stayed as your mount," Meixing wondered, feeling a little giddy at the prospect.

"Huh, what do you mean?"

If the horse could have seen Naruto's confused face she may have laughed off the notion, but ignorance being bliss, she pushed onward. "I... Well, I finally found something I'm good at! You know me, I couldn't hit the broadside of the Hokage Monument if I was ten feet away, but I can use Man-beast transformations at a level even the Sandaime was impressed by," she noted, her mind drifting to the night prior. Or was it early this morning?

Naruto frowned as he thought about it, his eyes tightening and he merely enjoyed riding in silence, several gawkers looking on at the strange sight of the boy in an orange jumpsuit on an armored horse.

The fact that the horse was speaking didn't matter to them as it was commonplace to see speaking animals around here. After a few moments walk the pair of ninja orphans found themselves at the academy where Naruto hopped down, his mind still on the thought of Meixing being his beast partner.

As Naruto stood beside the horse, she twisted her Chakra and transformed back into her human self, her horse-shaped helmet under her right arm, the pant legs altered to her new size became a long-flowing skirt and her saddle-blanket combo turned into a lava lava twisted around her upper body and tied in a knot between her breasts. As always, Meixing allowed her hair to flow freely down her back and she shook her head to enjoy the human feeling once more.

"Naruto-kun, where you last night," Ino shouted as the pair entered, her expression annoyed. To her side Hinata waved fondly at the newly arriving soon-to-be graduates. "Hinata and I waited for you at the Hokage Monument for hours!"

Naruto offered a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his head. "Um would you believe me when I said Mizuki-sensei tried to set me up for a huge crime and that Meixing and I both learned some awesome new jutsu," he asked while hoping and praying for a miracle. Sometimes Ino could be a bit too nosey.

The classroom stared at Naruto and Meixing before laughing in an uproarious fashion. "See, told you they would never buy it," Meixing returned, crossing her arms.

Naruto looked like he swallowed a lemon. "They didn't have to laugh so hard," he grumbled pitifully.

As Ino managed to stop laughing, she took her usual seat, chattering with Hinata and Sakura. Naruto grumbled as he headed for his desk before pausing to glare at Sasuke. "You... I can't wait until I can show off my awesome new jutsu and kick your ass with it," Naruto enthused, flexing his arm muscles.

Sasuke gazed upon Naruto as if seeing a bug he needed to squash and narrowed his eyes. "Idiot."

"WHAT WAS THAT?! You wanna go right now," Naruto thundered, his Chakra seeping from his orifices as his eyes began to glow red. "No one calls me idiot, you idiot!"

Sasuke glared harshly and stood from his desk, the two squaring off, not for the first time this school year. All eyes were riveted and blood was pumping loudly as the top-marks Taijutsu students prepared for battle. Sasuke slid his sandal-clad feet across the ground as he took an aggressive stance and Naruto gritted his teeth like a snarling bull.

Faster than any of the class's students could follow Sasuke launched a bevy of punches at Naruto, each deflected as Naruto returned the assault with few Chakra-enshrouded blows, each evaded by the Uchiha.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

Sasuke pulled a feint, punching at Naruto's face only to swing into a kick that doubled Naruto over. The blonde managed to keep hold of the leg through the pain and fired a bone-shattering rabbit punch into Sasuke's solar plexus.

To Naruto's consternation, the boy burst into a destroyed log. "Kawarimi," Naruto groused, spinning to his back side and crossing his arms as Sasuke led with a sideways aerial double kick.

Sasuke had expected a block from Naruto, perhaps even a counter, but as he flashed his hands through the seals for the coup de gras, he did not expect a smirk. No, in fact he did not expect a second Naruto kick him through his guard and send him tumbling across the room.

"Gah," Sasuke grimaced as he spat up a little blood, his eyes changing to reveal a Sharingan with a single tomoe, he looked back at Naruto. "That's it, you're dead, Naruto!"

"Kiss my ass, Sasuke," Naruto shouted back in challenge as the two boys charged.

There was a flash of movement and a fluttering of black cloth that revealed a tall man in an ANBU uniform, a Chinese-style dragon's face for his mask, standing between the two, holding each back with ease.

"A good display of Taijutsu, let's see your Ninjutsu now," the ANBU assessed as he tossed the boys away, each slamming into a wall, back first.

Naruto flashed through handseals and smirked. "Suiton: Kagebunshin no jutsu **(1)** ," he called out as he formed a Water Clone. While it wasn't quite a Mizubunshin, nor exactly a typical Shadow Clone, it was wholly unique, solid with an elemental manipulation to add to its solidity.

Dragon's eyes widened at the water manipulation technique. It was a B-rank jutsu at best, but the very fact that Naruto was able to use an element was startling, especially as he has been there with the Hokage the night prior when Naruto revealed he had just learned the base-form Kagebunshin.

Not to be outdone, Sasuke flashed through the handseals for a Katon Gokakyu no jutsu, but the ANBU stopped him quickly. "So a water style and a fire style going at each other. It makes sense," he noted, his hand resting on Sasuke's shoulder. Of course, had he learned that Naruto was actually a Wind Type, yet using Suiton because the girls around him did, he might have had a bit more respect for the boy.

Unfortunately, the two boys were not in the mood to be complimented even as they glared at one another. "Well, since your teachers, both Iruka and Mizuki, are not here at present, I guess that leaves just me to grade you children."

So saying, Dragon pulled out a clipboard from his ANBU cloak and checked off on Naruto and Sasuke for Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. "Well, you two are done. Go home," he announced jovially, but when the boys made to protest, he flared the smallest killing intent, dropping the kids to their knees, eyes wide and clenching each at his own chest.

As Inu relented, he rubbed the back of his head unabashed. "I suppose that was still a little much, huh?"

While the fighting duo remained pinned on the ground, Kakashi turned to the rest of the silent class, enjoying the way they gulped nervously and squirmed in their seats under his gaze. "Now that the excitement is over," he addressed before calling students one at a time.

"Meixing... I'm sorry, there's an edit in here Uzumaki Meixing," he called out, clearly puzzled behind his mask. 'Did something happen with Naruto without my knowledge,' he pondered, watching as the class's dead last made her way up a bit nervously. Inu observed her, easily fifteen and most likely on her final attempt at passing the academy before being dismissed. She wouldn't be the first or the last of the countless children, but her taking Naruto's name was with note.

Meixing looked around the room nervously and shuffled her feet before waving her hand at the ANBU to lean down to her height. As Inu obliged the short, busty girl, whispered in his ear.

"Oh my," he remarked, eyes wide behind his mask. "Well that's certainly a new one for me. Why don't you show me what you've got and I'll document you as a beast companion," he said softly to young girl.

Meixing nodded her head and looked around the classroom, seeing all eyes on her. With a nervous sigh, she went the handseals she had recently become used to forming. "Man-Beast Transformation!"

In a plume of smoke, Meixing stood as a gorgeous and overall healthy horse, clad in armor and bristling as she shuffled in agitation. To any that hadn't seen the girl change would have been none the wiser, thinking her a simple beast.

Dragon nodded his head as he ran a hand along her neck with approval. "This is the best beast transformation I've ever seen," he admitted.

"Thanks, ANBU-san, Sandaime-sama said the same thing last night," she enthused as she whinnied, her head tossing about as she ruffled up her mane.

"Hey, that's our jutsu," shouted Kiba as he jumped to his feet, leaning over his desk in anger.

Sadly, his outburst was ignored as all the girls in the class rushed Meixing, cooing and patting her, Ino and Hinata no different.

"Oh my god, you feel _just_ like a real horse," Ino cheered as she muzzled her face against the top side of Meixing's head.

 *****line break*****

Dragon pulled away his mask as he stood amidst several other Jounin revealing the half covered face of a Hyuuga. "Well, that was a surprise, I must say," the Hyuuga noted as he handed the Hokage his clipboard of names.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage puffed away at his pipe. He was an old man and had lived a very interesting life filled with battles, love and drama, but what he and those gathered had witnessed was all new to him.

"Huh, so the girl has become so infatuated with Naruto that she wants to be his horse," was the question to come from the scarlet-eyed Genjutsu mistress, Kurenai. The woman stood a respectable and always moved with a grace that drew the attention of her peers, here and now that was no different. She looked around herself at the men giving her a curious eye. "What?"

Asuma pulled a cigarette from his pack and slipped it between his lips. "Kurenai, that Naruto... He's something different. Keep a close eye on him as he grows up," he advised while lighting the end of the stick and followed by taking a long pull. All eyes were on Asuma Sarutobi now, but the Elite Jounin was used to attention. "He's already beyond all of these other kids, and they haven't figured it out yet," he assessed proudly.

Dragon nodded his head but remained silent while Genma Shiranui chewed on a senbon. "Whatever, I don't want the brat that knocked out the Hokage under me, I can say that much," he assessed around the metal needle in his mouth.

Several heads nodded. Among those heads Ebisu casually smirked. "The kid resorted to trickery to beat the Hokage, he's not that skilled. Why, I bet my Konohamaru could take him with one-hand behind his back," he challenged flamboyantly, his circle shades refracting light.

A few soft chuckles were heard and Chouza spoke up next, his arms crossed over his barrel-like chest. "Normally I prefer to skip training Genin, but I think I'll toss my hat in if we're placing bets on the best brats," he offered.

Inoichi smirked at his good friend and nodded assent. "Same here, old friend," he called out, stepping into the center of the group of Jounin.

Shikaku sighed. "Don't even think I'm gonna give up my days. I'm already busy as it is orchestrating all of the shinobi for the village," he complained and closed his eyes before snoring.

Hiruzen sighed feebly at his Shinobi commander before he realized that for the first time in many years his Jounin were energetic about training kids. As he took a moment to wipe his face with a cloth, Asuma stepped forward. "By the way, Hokage-sama," Asuma addressed with a smirk, "information is sketchy, but how _did_ Naruto get the drop on you?"

Cough! "Erhrm... That's an S-Rank secret," the man remarked with a faint red blush.

"Right," Tsume drawled as she and Kurenai leveled a matching pair of smoldering glares on the man. Oh, rumors spread. They certainly do...

"So, how many kids do you think will graduate this year," Ebisu asked, adjusting his shades. His question had nothing to do the exams that the academy had just collected grades on. That was all formalities and hullabaloo; no, he was wondering about the Jounin Exams, in which it would be determined if the kids were ready to be Genin. "I mean, last year several Jounin were left with no students," he pointed out.

Hiruzen nodded, puffing at his pipe. "If my hunch is correct, every student should pass their exams, even Naruto."

Ebisu harrumphed as he crossed his arms. "I don't see why you're wasting time sending him to take the exams when you've already given him a headband and assigned him a dedicated Jounin instructor," he asked in annoyance.

Tsume grinned at the weaselly man like a predator cornering a fat mouse. To his credit Ebisu was only slightly unnerved. "My, you're getting really worked up. Aren't you, Ebisu?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Inuzuka-san," he denied professionally. "I just can't image myself as an _E_ _lite_ Jounin going through the Chuunin Exams. That must be what Naruto is feeling," he offered haughtily.

Several Jounin shuffled as they also thought about the situation, but the joy on Naruto's face for every test he took and passed erased that feeling swiftly.

Finally, the end of the day came and every ninja-prospect passed the exams, much to the joy of Hiruzen. This was the first year that the entire class had graduated in the history of Konoha. One thing could be said for the deceased traitor, Mizuki, and his adoptive son, Iruka, they really knew how to do their jobs.

 *****like break*****

Naruto grinned as he high-fived Hinata and Ino, Meixing standing proudly over his shoulder and smiling. "Alright, we're finally all ninja! Let's go to Ichiraku for ramen," Naruto cheered.

The girls giggled at his exuberance. "Some might think you have a crush on Ayame considering how much you love going there," Ino teased boldly, pressing her finger into Naruto's chest.

A group of giggling newly-christened kunoichi raced up to Ino. "Hey, Ino come on, we're heading to Daley's Boutique for a shopping spree to celebrate our graduating," Candy informed excitedly.

Ino looked torn and looked at both groups with a struggle. Naruto began to snicker before showing her the handseals for his Kage Bunshin slowly on the edge of her vision. Ino grinned and nodded, performing the jutsu perfectly on her first try. 'The perks of excellent Chakra control,' she noted with a grin as she high-fived her clone. "Go get something sexy for me," she commanded, handing over her wallet, before turning to Naruto.

The giggling girls raced along and Ino turned to her group of girlfriends and Naruto with a happy smile. "Alright, that's the coolest jutsu I've ever seen, Naruto," she praised happily.

Naruto nodded with a smile. "Yeah it is," he agreed before turning to Hinata. "Now you're the only one not to use it," he pointed a bit seriously, as if daring her to keep the status of Shadow Clone Virgin.

Hinata smiled softly and created a Kage Bunshin easily. The two Hyuuga girls smiled to Naruto as the clone burst itself.

Naruto's eyes widened, as did Meixing's. "Y-you popped it!" Naruto shouted in alarm. "How the heck did you do that?! I spent an hour stabbing all my clones last night," he whined.

Hinata smirked, although on her face it came off as an adoring smile. "I'll show you later, Naruto-kun. Let's go have lunch," she brought up happily.

Naruto instantly forgot about his question as he rubbed his hands, his belly shouting its own agreement.

As if a starting gun was fired, the four tore across town on a beeline for the popular ramen stand. As the four ninja raced they took turns setting traps and attacking one another. To be honest, to those unfamiliar with what had become the new norm, they may have thought that the ninja village was under attack with number of explosions and jutsu tossed back and forth.

As a dragon made of earth raced along the streets of the village, Ino riding on its head, a few civilians sidestepped the path and shook their heads before cheering on their preferred ninja in the foot race.

Naruto grinned merrily as he twisted out of the way of Hinata's Juuken strikes. They really hurt when connecting and dodging the girls incredible speed bursts always gave Naruto a natural high. "So close, Hinata-chan," he cheered playfully as he barely slipped around a palm strike.

Hinata wasn't phased by the ribbing and only nodded her head and lashed out faster, her arms pumping like pistons as she jumped roof to roof in pursuit of her love interest. 'I'll manage one hit today,' she promised to herself even as Ino fired a mud ball at the pair, forcing them to separate.

Meixing charged Ino from the side, dislodging the kunoichi from her dragon and causing it to crumble to dust. Unfortunately, Ino was far better at Taijutsu and took Meixing to task quickly. Punches slipped through the Chinese girl's guard and hammered her hard, leaving light bruises before Meixing could retaliate.

Naruto managed to flip over Hinata and pushed down on her shoulders, using his Motoki as scythes that nearly ripped the girl's arms clear off. Blood sprayed in every direction while Naruto jumped in between Ino and Meixing, catching one of Ino's slender legs as she went for a kick as well as Meixing's overextended left arm with a vicious smirk.

Both girls paled as they knew what was about to happen. Unfortunately for Naruto and very fortunately for the captive girls, Hinata was suddenly there, her arms a blur as she hammered Naruto so fast that his orange jumpsuit began to smoke before spinning 420 degrees and kicking the living hell out of Naruto, her for foot glowing with Motoki.

Naruto was opened up from belly button to neck with every organ and bone in between sliced neatly in half. And that was when he burst into white smoke.

All three blinked and looked around for Naruto. Nearly a block ahead the blonde was spotted waving as he jumped into the entrance of the ramen stand with a massive shit-eating grin on his face. "Bahahaha, I love Kage Bunshin!"

The three girls grumbled as they walked up to the stand in defeat. "That was a great kick at the end there, Hinata," Ino praised with a nodding head while the Hyuuga blushed like a tomato.

"I wasn't fast enough to catch the real Naruto though," she returned softly.

Meixing waved her concerns off. "No matter what you saved us from turning into Swiss cheese. I hate eating ramen covered in blood," Meixing noted.

Ino and Hinata agreed silently while walking into the restaurant and smelling the yummy food. The moment that the trio of girls entered the establishment, Naruto was instantly in their faces. "Hey, Hinata-chan, you're not hurt are you-ttebayo?"

The Hyuuga heiress flushed in embarrassment as Naruto began running his hands along her body, searching for lingering injuries. "N-Naruto-kun, please stop," she pleaded softly, managing to get the worry-wort away from her. As the blonde Hokuto Ryuuken practitioner gave a watery-eyed leer, Hinata waved her hands at the boy. "I'm completely fine," she insisted.

Naruto sighed and his shoulders slumped, sagging slightly. "Geez, Naruto-kun," Ino addressed in an uppity voice. "You found that damn healing technique," the blonde girl pointed out as she huffed.

Naruto sighed. It was true that he had come across a healing technique back in chapter nine of the book. It explained ways to manipulate one's Motoki/Chakra to reverse physical damage as if it had never happened. Naruto sighed as he relented in his tendency to worry about the well-being of his fellow practitioners.

The four kids had become a tight-knit family, almost Yakuza in their devotion to one-another. He was the older brother to three charming sisters, and it made his heart warm to think that he finally had a family. Of course, being young and a boy at that, Naruto had yet to realize the affections tossed his way. Even with Ino's overt flirtations, he just assumed the girl enjoyed making him flustered.

Well, that was true. Ino did enjoy taking Naruto a good distance outside of his comfort zone, and Hinata... And Meixing for that matter. Okay, so she was a flirt and a bit of a gossip; don't think that took away from her skills in the least, much less her devotion to Naruto.

Currently, the blonde boy was placing himself in a seat at the head of a special table sectioned off from the rest of the restaurant with curtain walls displaying the triple swirls of Uzushiogakure within the center of Konoha's leaf. He pushed aside the curtain for a moment, peering into the rest of the place, the harsh glares of those around softened as hey took notice of the symbol on the curtain and almost appeared shame-faced.

It was a look only the older generations, those that had been ninja for a minimum of the end of the Second War, would afford him. Naruto frowned, and not for the first time. Even the civilians that looked upon the curtain that Ino had commissioned gave him the group, more importantly Naruto, shameful eyes before moving on.

"Hey, Ino have you found out anything about why everyone here seems to either be sad at me displaying my clan's symbol or not recognize it at all," Naruto asked softly as he let the curtain drop. This little area of the restaurant had been a gift to Naruto from Teuchi for bringing so much good business to his stand, as well as a way that Naruto could eat in peace without the glares.

How had Naruto brought good business? Ayame, Teuchi's lovely auburn-haired daughter, the very same that Meixing had mentioned before, peeked into the room and quickly gathered Naruto and Meixing in a friendly embrace, an arm looped through an arm on each as she giggled happily. "I'm guessing you guys finally passed this year," she asked, joy and life in her voice.

Unlike some of the more embittered people to flunk out of academy, Ayame had embraced a life with her father and honestly felt no remorse in living a civilian life. Granted she kept up her academy training, which had been sub par anyway as she flunked, but that was more fr her lovely figure. Being Sixteen and a star of the village, even if by producing noodles, Ayame had an image to maintain.

Naruto grabbed his hitae-ite between his index and thumb proudly. "Hell yeah," he cheered proudly. Meixing looked away from a moment and whispered something with a heavy blush. The blush was met by a squeal. "OH MY! Meixing, you didn't," Ayame enthused with a knowing twinkle in her eyes. After all it had been Ayame's influence and scheming that gave Meixing the idea...

 _ **Flashback**_

 _Meixing sighed as she stepped within the Ichiraku Ramen stand. It was early. Really early as even the sun was still sleeping, yet even as she entered the establishment, she found both caretakers of the family name setting up shop. With a practiced ease, Meixing started scrubbing tables and setting chairs. This she could manage._

 _Ayame and Teuchi passed a look at the girl. She often came by the place and helped open it, even working all day unless Teuchi shooed her away. It wasn't that he didn't mind the company, he loved the girl like a niece, but she was clumsy as hell and often broke his dishes!_

 _Ayame sent a look to her father that stopped him from badgering his daughter. With a simple grace and elegance, Ayame made her way to Meixing and covered the Chinese girl's eyes from behind. "Guess who," she teased, throwing her voice and making it sound like Naruto's, one of the very skills that Ayame had actually been competent in._

 _Meixing grinned before spinning to face the other girl. "MORNING AYAME-NEECHAN!" If the Ichiraku family had not been awake before, they most certainly were now._

 _Ayame led the year junior girl to a table with the chairs still stacked on top and after the pair settled the legs on the floor, Ayame gestured that her friend sit. "So, what happened? The village was so active last night that I knew Naruto was in the center," she gleaned, leaning forward for something interesting._

 _Much to Ayame's surprise, Meixing went a bright red. "A lot of things happened actually," she began, her gaze following the patterns in the wall and the many intricate details of drawings. "Some of it I can't reveal by order of The Hokage, himself," she announce giddily. It still make her feel supercharged that The Hokage, THE HOKAGE, had met her and Naruto and even sat down with them like they were family to him._

 _Ayame smiled softly. She had yet to meet the village's leader on a personal or business aspect. He tended to remain distanced from the relaxation areas of the village. Meixing was a lucky girl, and Naruto even more so as he spent a lot of time with the wizened old man."Well, what can you tell me?"_

 _The conversation quickly devolved into girly gossip between the two about the events of the day prior, her transforming into a catgirl and even an actual cat. After a round of laughter Ayame's eyes sparkled. "Who would have thought that little Naruto would be such a deviant? I mean hiding so many magazines and making such a perverted jutsu," she pointed out with a smirk._

 _Meixing flushed a bit and nodded meekly. "Well, I at least learned his jutsu," she pointed out with a firm nod._

 _Ayame's eyes twinkled. "With that kind of transformation, you could become what Naruto's always asked for," she pointed out as she schemed. "Imagine it: having Naruto running his hands along your body and mounting you day after day. The feel of running through the woods together... Oh it would be so romantic!"_

 _ **End Flashback**_

"Well... I wasn't very confident that I could graduate anyway," Meixing offered around the extremely rosy cheeks.

Ino and Hinata took note of this affect and the fact that Ayame seemed to be the one behind it in the first place and once more bumped Ayame up as a major background player. For someone with so little talent, she was extremely skilled in the manipulations of others through the small things.

Naruto ignored all of this as he held his empty belly. "Ayame-neechan," he whined to get the older teen's attention. "I'm hungry, dattebayo."

Ayame sent a sideways glance at Naruto as his voice almost seemed to crack while whinging. "Sure. What do you want today, Mr. Shinobi," she teased warmly.

There was a frenzy of orders placed, easily a dozen bowls for each. This was the real reason Ino had commissioned and sprung for the privacy curtain and offset booth. The amount of Chakra that she and her fellow ninja were expending on a daily basis was killer on body fat and calories. She had not had the chance to even try dieting since she began training with Naruto and Hinata. Sure, she was near the bottom of the totem, only above Meixing – although, not because Meixing wasn't trying, she just wasn't a genius like Ino – but that didn't mean she was exempt from the physical requirements of water and sustenance.

She couldn't allow herself to be seen eating twenty bowl of ramen at a time! The first time she had eaten even two bowls it had been when she and her gossip guild were stopping in for a snack. She had been mortified at the way they looked at her. Not only had she actually finished her first bowl, but she had gathered the remainder of Sakura and Ginger's bowls as well. Ino let out a sigh as she took her proper seating placement, immediately to Naruto's left while Hinata was to his right. Meixing had always found a place to sit at the rear of the blonde, every bit the mousy servant-girl that she was portrayed as.

"You know, we're going to need to add more members to our gang, boss," Ino slurred as she spoke in the male dialect, snapping Naruto out of thoughts of his belly.

"What the hell are you talking about?" The confusion on Naruto's cherub face was adorable. "This isn't a gang at all, Ino. Just a group of friends," he tried to point out.

Hinata shook her head, having caught on, and also slurred in the male dialect. "This just won't do! We need more blood in our gang," she thundered, slapping her palm on the low table. Naruto wasn't sure when Hinata had changed clothes, but the yukata and tiny shorts with was definitely distracting when worn by her; and the way her right arm and shoulder were bare, displaying her tightly bound chest as the sleeve drooped, unused, brought a heavy blush to his face.

Ayame, returning with the first tray of food grinned as she slipped in, staying low as a yakuza slave would behave. She must have bowed a million times as she served the quartet, falling into character as well, much to Naruto's growing confusion...

 **(The Next Morning)**

Naruto and Meixing stepped through the classroom door with a pair of matching grins. They had both finally done it! After three years - two as failures - and a night of deception that almost had them labeled traitors, the two near washouts were finally recognized.

Naruto happily adjusted his hitae-ite, thinking about how amazing it felt to be that one step closer to reaching his dream (Who needs a clue? Starts with an H). Looking around the room he spotted nearly a hundred other hopefuls whispering and chatting. According to Ino, this was a record breaking number of graduates. The closest number prior to reaching so many Genin graduates had been three years ago and there was a whopping thirty more students this time than the last.

Among the crowd of official ninja, he spotted three faces that mattered more to him than anyone else, aside from Meixing who was at his side. Ino was in the center of a gaggle of girls, Hinata was seated where she normally sat, trying to keep the attention of the class away from her person... The third face was the one Naruto headed to.

The room fell silent, all eyes watching Naruto as he headed towards his target...

"Sasuke," he addressed, his voice tight and controlled. The Uchiha looked up from his desk, over his stacked hands and into the eyes of Naruto. "As of today, our feud is over. We're shinobi now and the next time we meet will most likely be out on the battlefield," he addressed formally.

Sasuke released the breath he didn't realize that he was holding. The tension that was always in his shoulders released and he set his hands, palms down, on his desk. "You're right. We can't fight like kids anymore," he acknowledged seriously. Slowly, ever so slowly and almost with a strain, Sasuke smiled. It was soft but genuine. "Just don't think I'll ever let you surpass me."

Naruto grinned like a fox, eyes screwed closed and all his teeth on display. "Just you wait, I'll become a Jounin in no time!"

Sasuke nodded his head, actually believing the words. "I'll be one in half the time, then," he challenged.

Naruto glared a moment before his face returned to a smile. "Haha, Sasuke, The Emotionless, actually told a joke!"

Before anyone could say anything, Iruka burst into the room, his left arm in a sling, still sore after being dislocated just two days ago. "Okay, class. I hope you're ready, as we have an unprecedented number of Elite Jounin wanting squads this year," he announced, his own eyes still showing disbelief at the names on his list.

"As we have so many students to graduate this year, teams will not so much be numbered as named. I'll begin by naming the Elite Squads first. If you were selected for an Elite team, I expect you to reach Chuunin by next year. Please, make Konoha and the academy proud," Iruka encouraged.

All of the kids shuffled to their seats quickly, eyes riveted and ears burning. Thirty six established ninja entered the room at that moment and stood nonchalantly behind Iruka. The most surprising was Kakashi who looked to be annoyed as he had his arms crossed and a glare pointed towards one section of the Jounin instructors.(2)

Iruka swallowed nervously at the sheer power that the assembled represented. After a moment to compose himself, he began to speak. "Alright, Team Yamanaka," he called out as Inoichi, a tall blonde man stepped forward, his eyes twinkling as he looked over the gathered ninja. "We have Hibiki Ryouga, Saotome Ranma and Ching Mousse," he called out as three top ninja graduates, those immediately under Sasuke and Naruto in Taijutsu, stepped forwards and greeted their new instructor.

The four left quickly and Iruka pointed to the largest Jounin, "Team Akimichi. Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li _**Jormungandr**_ ," he called out, as the triplets rose. The three were top in the class for Ninjutsu, following Sasuke of course, even beating out Hinata and Sakura for Chakra molding skill.

As they wandered out, Chun-Li grumbling about having to take care of her brothers for the rest of her career, Iruka cleared his throat. "Team Shiranui: Manny Pacqiuao, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield." There was some disgruntled grumbling as the three named were _not_ top marksmen, more to the bottom of the totem for any of the three major skills. Yet, the three were happy to be considered for an elite team and each raced up to their instructor with proud cries, nearly tackling the man.

Iruka shook his head in dismay. "Alright, let's settle down," he addressed as the kids continued muttering. "Team Ebisu: Pai Ayanokoji, Yakumo Fuji and Benares _**Ryuujin**_ ," he called out, watching as the three top intellectual students made their way over.

"Team Sarutobi," he called out, making a few heads perk up, looking for the Hokage, as that was the God of Shinobi's surname. When a young man - one that stood head and shoulders taller than the village leader - stepped forward, all faces fell, thinking it a bust and forgetting the fact that he was still an Elite Jounin. "Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and-" Iruka was interrupted as the two named boys and Naruto's favorite blonde spoke in unison.

"Ino Yamanaka, we already know," they piped in unison. It had been all that Ino could talk about after Hinata revealed it to her two days ago. She had even started dragging her clan brothers (Shikamaru and Chouji) around to her gossip sessions, much to their chagrin.

Iruka rubbed at his nape as he turned to Asuma. "I'm sorry, they're not usually so spirited," he offered nervously.

Asuma smiled cordially at the young man that had been taken into the family almost like an adopted brother. "It's all good (there's a Japanese phrase that I can hear Asuma say, but I can't think of a better translation). I'm excited that I was the Sarutobi selected to continue our tradition."

Iruka nodded and watched as the group left. The initial groupings had removed a good chunk of the students and for the first time all year the classroom looked less than cramped. "Team Hatake-," Iruka began before the Elite Jounin placed a hand on his shoulder.

Iruka went silent and gave the man the floor. "Due to special circumstances beyond my control, my team will only have two members," Kakashi noted with a bit of a tired voice. He was a bit bitter, as the Hokage knew he had waited thirteen years for Naruto, and was even going to place him under special apprenticeship if the blonde failed his third attempt, like Gai had done for that Lee boy last year. He almost felt betrayed that he wouldn't have Naruto on his team at all, but orders were orders and he would fulfill them to the best of his abilities. "Sakura Haruno, top in class in intellectual studies and fourth in Chakra control. High marks in weapons accuracy and high potential for Genjutsu and medical training," he addressed blandly. Sakura rose with a blush on her face at all of her accomplishments.

"Sasuke Uchiha, top score in Taijutsu, fourth in Ninjutsu, second third in Chakra control, and," he paused as he raised his hitae-ite, to reveal his Sharingan eye. "The last Uchiha in the village," he pointed out, earning several gasps from the kids, Naruto and Sasuke notwithstanding.

Sasuke was immediately on his feet and had a question on his lips, but he held back to outburst. Lucky for him, Naruto duplicated the action, only without holding back. "Hey you! You've got the Sharingan eye!"

Kakashi lowered his headband slowly and followed the action with an eye-smile. "Yes. That's right, Capt. Obvious," he returned jovially.

Naruto growled loudly and started to say something when Hinata's gentle touch calmed him in an instant. "Whatever," he huffed as he crossed his arms and sat down, the air gone from his sails. Meixing sent Hinata an appreciative look that made the Hyuuga girl flush.

Ino, who was still in the hallway and watching with interest, smirked. "I thought so," she drawled with a knowing whisper under her breath while Asuma, Choji and Shikamaru sighed in frustration. They wanted to to move along, but the girl that was obviously in charge of this group continued to make them wait for departure.

"That's it for the Elite Squads," Iruka called out as he began to read off the other teams. "Let's see, we'll start with Team Yuuhi," he called out as the most beautiful ninja in the village stepped forward, her hauntingly beautiful crimson eyes dancing over the kids, stopping on her ward, Hinata, with a bit of pride.

"Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Abarame." The three kids quietly rose and left, although Kiba did gripe at being left out of the Elite Squads, but when he spied Naruto, recalling that he also was excluded, the sting lessened.

Slowly every student and Jounin whittled away until only Iruka, **Tsume** \- a feral, animalistic woman in a Jounin uniform, **Anko -** a woman wearing a brown trenchcoat and purple skirt with a mesh top, **Hana** \- a young girl that Naruto kind of recognized, wearing a chuunin vest with her jacket and vest both opened to expose her cleavage, Naruto and Meixing.

"Lastly, Naruto and Meixing," Iruka said to the pair of kids that had turned Konoha's upper echelon on its ear. "Since neither of you have a clan to fall back on, much less any experience with nin-ken combat, the Hokage has seen fit to assign you the foremost Jounin in nin-ken combat, Tsume Inuzuka. Her daughter, the second best, Hana Inuzuka. And the possibly the best intuitive animal-partner combat expert, Anko Mitarash-."

Iruka was interrupted as Anko suddenly threw out two kunai, spreading a large black banner and blocking the view of Hana and Tsume. The banner read, "Sexy and single, Anko-chan". "Mmmm, you keep praising my good points like that and I may have to change the status on my banner," Anko teased with good nature.

Iruka flushed and swallowed nervously. "N-no, that's okay," he awarded. While he and Anko had toyed with the idea several times since academy, neither were truly ready to start something formal.

Anko pointedly ignored the looks of awe in the Genin, the grumbles of the Inuzuka women and Iruka shaking his head. "Alright, let's get this show on the road! Mission time," she called out, pulling a scroll from her coat.

Naruto, with tears in his eyes, was instantly standing under Anko, gazing with adoration at the short, but well-accomplished Special (Tokubetsu) Jounin. "A-Anko-sensei," he cried out. "Such style and charisma!"

Tsume shook her head sadly. "Yeah, that's right, kid," Anko admitted proudly with a wide grin.

Sadly, a rain cloud appeared in the form of Tsume Inuzuka. "Anko... Stop trying to foist your damn mission on these kids and deal with cleaning your mess on your own," she growled lowly. At her heels sat a massive blue-gray wolf wearing an eye patch on its right eye and missing its left ear. He actually appeared amused. Now that Naruto and Meixing took in the appearance of the massive and scary war beast, they also noticed that Hana had three identical dogs with slight differences in coat patterns. These half dog, half wolves were vigilant in watching the room and stayed close under Hana.

Meixing approached the wolf fang clan with mild trepidation. "Sensei, I look forward to learning from you," she announced with a formal bow. Naruto only had to be slightly nudged to duplicate the words and actions.

 **(A Short Walk, And Ditching Anko, Later)**

"Normally," Tsume began as she looked at her " _team of Genin_ ". "A ninja must create a Chakra pathway in his or her nin-ken. And over a period of months, that ninja must exercise the Chakra network to expand the pool. But, you and Naruto are unique."

Tsume paused in her explanation to gesture to a large wolf at her side. The massive beast moved to her extended hand, making contact. "I have to manipulate my nin-ken's Chakra with special handseals," she addressed while doing so. In a puff of smoke her wolf became her exact clone.

Naruto and Meixing grinned and clapped like children at a magic show. The real Tsume blushed as she brained the kids with feral punches. "I'm not here to entertain you, you brats!"

"Ouchy," Meixing remarked as she climbed back into a seat, rubbing the lump on her head. Naruto fared a little better but was grumbling profanities under his breath.

"Like I was saying," Tsume continued as she gestured to her duplicate. "Nin-ken cannot use their own Chakra for jutsu, even if in human form. They can mimic our handseals and even pump up their Chakra. But for some reason, they can't activate the jutsu without direct contact."

Meixing raised her hand as the dawning of understanding tickled her mind. "Is that what makes us unique? We can both use our Chakra independently?"

Tsume grinned like a wild animal as she released her wolf partner from his transformed state. "Got it in one. With training under me, the best Man-Beast practitioner in the village, you'll be kicking ass and taking names in no time."

Naruto and Meixing were mirrors of one another and grinned like lunatics. "Yosha! Let's do this!"

Tsume took a moment to clean her ears after Naruto's loud decree and leveled a glare. "Yeah... You're gonna be bugging Hana, Naruto," she addressed, sending a look to her partner, Kuromaru. The wolf nodded and rushed off at incredible speed.

The blonde ninja blinked at the statement. "Who's Hana, Tsume-sensei?"

Meixing sent a furtive glance to Naruto, slightly worried that he recall the "Wild Beauty" of the year before their first attempt to graduate. From what she has heard, Hana had only increased in her beauty and wild nature. Even as she pondered the thought, Meixing decided not to say anything.

Tsume looked over at Meixing, a gleam in her eye, spotting the worry and fondness for the blonde brat. 'Oh, this is going to be fun,' she noted internally.

 *****line break*****

Hana and her wolf-dog partners, The Three Haimaru Brothers, each shuddered, falling back a pace in their ready stance. 'This feeling,' the Chuunin veterinary considered with a visible tremble. 'It's so evil and powerful...'

Casting a glance at her nin-ken, more for the fact that looking into the face of the face of Naruto - with his glowing red eyes and green Chakra smoke rolling along his figure - was unnerving her than anything else, Hana whispered, "should we rush and flank him or play tit for tat?"

Amazingly the middle animal smirked and spoke, although it was only understandable to an Inuzuka or another wolf. "Let's go for a rush. I'm interested if his skills are as good as his kill intent," the beast pointed out.

Hana nodded her beautiful head and rushed the boy, her back arched and posture low while her partner, the Haimaru that had spoken, came from the other side, each moving at the speed of a thrown kunai and crisscrossing on their path.

Naruto's eyes tracked them both and a vicious grin grew on his face. "This might leave a mark," he commented jokingly.

Neither Hana nor the wolf-dog knew what happened as the two moved in to strike. One moment Hana had a kunai aiming to rip out the jugular and her nin-ken had his jaws wide and ready to clamp the boys spine, mid-back...

There was a spray of blood and Hana found herself staring into the sky, finding no strength to move...

After several tentative moments of drifting that razor's edge between life and death the Chuunin wondered where the blood had come from before a pain in her chest let her know she had been struck. Pain? Yeah, the pain was good. It was a far cry from the numbness she had been experiencing up to this point.

The faint whimpering cry of her wolf-dog reminded the Inuzuka that she wasn't alone in the attack and she worried after her lifetime friend.

Naruto's face came into her vision with a worried frown. "Hey, Hana-neechan, are you alright?"

Slowly strength began to enter her limbs and she managed to push herself back up with a great struggle. "W-what the hell was that?" she managed weakly.

Naruto rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly. "It was a cross cut with a bladed edge-fist," he offered as if explaining things to a child. "I was certain you would have dodged, even Ino's fast enough to get out of my reach when I'm moving that slow," he offered as he helped the girl to sit up.

Hana looked to her right, spotting her partner unharmed, but lying in the grass in submission as he looked at Hana. "Hey Gin **(** **3** **)** , are you alright?"

The wolf nodded softly. "Naruto-sama didn't harm me. But, your chest exploded," the wolf cried out, a whimper again emitted from the animal.

Hana looked down at her destroyed Chuunin vest and the ripped open jacket beneath and below that; she saw perfect, if a bit reddened, skin. The hole was perfectly placed to have opened her like a tin can and currently exposed the flesh between her breasts quite abundantly, her nipples being just at the far-sides of opening. With a bit of a blush and an eep, Hana pulled her hands over her exposed mammaries.

Naruto blushed but didn't look away from the older girl, fantasies dancing through his mind of those large bouncy orbs. He honestly had no idea what he would do with them, but just the thought of them was exciting his mind and body in new and interesting ways.

"You can stop staring now!" Hana barked, her rarely seen fangs bared as she gave off a growl.

Naruto blushed head to toe as steam whistled from his ears. "Uh, sorry!"

Hana slowly shook her head, 'this boy... To hold so much power and still seem so innocent,' she considered pensively. Naruto was an enigma to her. Throughout the academy she had heard of the blonde boy that sucked at everything ninja related, but seeing and being decimated by him in only a single strike... It honestly wasn't fair. She had worked her butt off to get to where she was and in only one year he was surpassing speeds that Hana herself couldn't even see and calling it slow...

"Tha-that's enough training for today. Meet me at mom's house tomorrow morning and we'll see what she wants to do," Hana directed.

Naruto frowned and shrugged. "I thought we'd get more than one spar in today, especially after I healed you," he groused noisily before stomping away with a slightly thoughtful look in his eyes.

Hana again looked at her body, the red tint fading as she gazed on it. "He healed me?"

Naruto paid no heed to the woman's words as he continued to traverse the training grounds. He spotted several Genin teams talking and training with their Jounin sensei but the one that caught his attention was Team 7 where his rival was at. He spied Sasuke going all out against some man with gravity-defying gray hair. The man was reading a book while taking the Uchiha to task and Naruto frowned. He knew how good Sasuke was. Hell, the "Last Uchiha" was better than himself and Naruto could admit it, but seeing his rival get tossed around by a man who wasn't even paying attention was extremely humbling.

"Such a difference," Naruto whispered as he looked down on his hands. "I need to get stronger if I'm gonna become Hokage," he noted before a wide grin started to spread over his face. "Yeah... I'll become the strongest! The fastest! Just wait, I'll show you the true power of Naruto Uzumaki," he declared boisterously as he posed with his hands on his hips and head tossed back in a laugh.

Kakashi looked up from his book at the oddly cackling blonde. "Hm?"

Sasuke glared at Naruto from where he was buried in the ground up to his neck. 'Is he laughing at me?!'

Naruto turned and raced away, planning on how he could not only close the gap between himself and Sasuke, but surpass his current limits and become the next Hokage.

 **(Many Hours Later)**

Tsume took a sideways glance at the destroyed uniform Hana was holding up. "So Naruto's as frisky as an Inuzuka," Tsume teased, enjoying the red face of her daughter and the pale face of her son, Kiba, who was just entering the house.

"Moooom," Hana whined as she shook her head, looking and sounding like a civilian girl of equal age. "I'm serious! That kid's in a league of his own. I've never been outpaced and taken down by just one blow before," she intoned seriously.

Kiba shook his head. "Who are you talking about now? I swear you go through too many boy toys, Hana," he taunted as he dodged a swipe from his older sister. The fact that one of her pooches decided his butt tasted like chicken caught him off guard though. "Ouch! Let go," he commanded hotly, watching as the large wolf-dog backed away with a smirk.

Tsume barely bit back a chuckle as she watched the interplay.

"Kiba, you were in his class this year, how good exactly is Naruto," Hana addressed, barely restraining the urge to pummel her little brother.

Kiba shrugged his shoulders. "Outside of Sasuke, he's the best at Taijutsu. He sucks with Genjutsu and can barely hit a target with a kunai or shuriken, but his aim's gotten better through the year. I think only Sasuke knows how good he is... I mean only a few Jounin, that had to be hired on to break up their fights, could see, much less stop, those two going at each other." Kiba shrugged his shoulders as indifferent as ever. Besides, he had his own problems to work on.

Hana frowned and Tsume looked intrigued. "As fast as the Uchiha? How did he manage that in just one year?"

Hana pointed to her ripped apart vest and jacket. "I'm guessing the same way he glows like a demon and ripped me to shreds in a single strike..."

Tsume's eyes flashed dangerously at the statement, hearing something her daughter spoke. "I... I'll be back later tonight. I need to see someone," she barked harshly, her voice extremely tight.

Kiba and Hana passed a confused expression between each other as their mother left the house even leaving her nin-ken behind.

"Huh, I wonder what that was about," Hana pondered aloud.

"Maybe she's out getting laid," Kiba pointed out bluntly, although the smirk on his face at Hana's blush said he expected the reaction.

 **(With Naruto)**

Naruto smiled warmly as he entered the secret clearing he and his close friends had taken to using. It was getting late in the afternoon nearing nightfall, but everyone was gathered there, each young teenager practicing her kata.

"Hey, what are you all doing here," Naruto asked as he made his way to a tree stump and sat in lotus.

Ino looked up and bounded over, hanging over Naruto's shoulder in an extremely wanton display. "Well, after I trained with my team, I realized that I was way ahead of them," the blonde girl purred as she played with Naruto's whisker marks.

Hinata glared flatly at Ino and bristled, but the blonde only poked her tongue back. "My team specializes in tracking, just like I thought; so we don't focus on the combat aspect only on our family traits. I came here to get some real training," she offered softly with a tightness to her voice that made Ino sigh and move away.

Meixing grinned broadly, showing her worn-through dress off. "Tsume-sensei kicked my ass and then gave me seconds! It was great," the girl cheered with exuberance.

Ino, Naruto and Hinata cast withering looks at the girl. Each whispering something along the lines of lucky.

With a quick swipe, Naruto pulled his book out if his pouch and started to read from it. "With academy out of the way, we have a whole day to commit again. Granted missions will take some time out of our schedule, but I plan to finish this book as soon as possible!"

The girls looked over at Naruto with more than a little pride in their collective eyes. Hinata shared a look with Ino who nodded at her. Receiving the sign, she spoke up. "N-Naruto-kun... I... That is..." she began to stammer as her face lit up like a bonfire, her pink Motoki spilling into the clearing in her nervousness.

Naruto looked on with confusion, but waited patiently while the other two girls were lending their emotional support to the nervous Hyuuga girl.

"What I mean is, I want... When I'm the head of my clan, I want to swear allegiance to your Uzumaki clan," she finally managed.

Naruto fell from his seat and shouted in surprise. "Hee-! Ouch... What are you talking about, Hinata-chan? We're all loyal ninja to Konoha," he protested as he rubbed his sore rump.

Hinata shook her head vehemently in protest. "It's more than that, Naruto-kun," she shared, earning nods from Ino and Meixing. "There's something special, different, about you. Whether you become Hokage or not. If you're ever in need, we'll give our lives for you," the timid girl offered strongly.

Ino nodded her head and pulled two scrolls out. "I wasn't sure about saying anything yet, but when Hinata said she wanted to do the same, I had these contracts drawn up."

Naruto looked at the scrolls with a confused face. "I'm not sure what you're talking about," the blonde admitted but didn't back away. "I don't know anything about having a clan, but if you really think you should put your trust in me, I won't let you down. I'll never betray my friends," he swore with eyes that were well beyond his years.

The three kunoichi nodded. There had never been a question or a doubt that Naruto would become something special and it was well beyond just his fighting style. It was his soul. A destiny was on his shoulders that the boy seemed to run to with excitement.

Ino pulled the scrolls open and Hinata took one. Pulling out a kunai, Hinata pricked her finger and signed her name in blood, Ino taking the same kunai and mirroring the Hyuuga with her own contact. Both girls stepped up to Naruto and took a knee, offering the scrolls to Naruto in a display of fealty.

Naruto took the kunai and plunged it through his palm to the hilt before slapping his entire hand on each contract in time. "I, Naruto Uzumaki, gladly offer my own life for yours. If you ever need me, I'll be there, dattebayo!"

Hidden in the trees were three ninja watching with stealth far beyond anything that the kids could detect. The first was Hiruzen Sarutobi, a faint smile playing his lips. "Naruto, to think you would come so far and earn such respect," he whispered, heard by his companions alone.

The second was Asuma who mirrored his father's smile. "So, she really is serious about this," he noted as he played with a cigarette, resisting the urge to light it.

The last was Tsume Inuzuka who had approached the Hokage about the seal weakening in Naruto. She never expected to venture into the unused woods where the Senjuu and Namikaze families once trained, much less did she expect to see the heirs of two of the most powerful clans swearing the loyalty of said clans to a boy as hated as Naruto was. She looked up at the Hokage wondering why the man didn't arrest the kids for conspiracy and planned mutiny.

Hiruzen smiled at Tsume softly. "I know what you're thinking, Tsume. And, it's not quite what you think. I know your clan is fairly young so you're still learning and building your knowledge, but every aged clan here holds a loyalty to a larger clan that ties loyalty to either the Senjuu or Uchiha clan, even though both are down to their last heirs," he explained.

"Before ninja villages like Konoha existed, there were only clans which is why we call it the clan wars prior to the shinobi world wars. These clans were often losing members in combat and often had to turn to a stronger clan to rebuild their numbers. Even the great clans were not immune. In fact, the history of the Yamanaka, Nara, Akimichi and Sarutobi clans goes back two hundred years before the founding of this very village. Those three clans were in dire straits and were down to a handful of women each. My clan took them in and never asked for anything from them. They swore themselves to us and in three generations were a thousand strong apiece. Our loyalty to one another has never been questioned, even now."

Tsume looked thoughtful but nodded her head. "I wonder if Kiba or Hana would swear fealty to Naruto?"

Asuma took a long drag and shrugged, finally losing to his nicotine addiction. "Who can say. I wouldn't mind doing the same. I'm sure you've noticed how different Naruto is. While driven and focused on his goal of becoming Hokage, he takes the time to bring others up alongside him."

Tsume nodded, her nose wrinkling at the odor of the cigarette. "Asuma, you're a handsome young man, but that horrendous odor will be the death of you. Whatever woman takes you to her bed is gonna kill you for making her house smell like that," she teased fondly, her eyes softening.

Asuma chuckled lightly. "Maybe I do it to keep the women away, like Kakashi and his face mask," he pointed out jovially.

The sound of a page turning made the joking Jounin look up to see Kakashi sitting upside in a tree branch, reading his favorite orange book. He raised his right hand in greeting. "Yo."

Hiruzen laughed lightly. "Watching over your little brother again," the Hokage pointed out.

Kakashi nodded his head.

"I still don't see why you don't just go down and talk to him," Asuma grumbled.

Tsume took this in with a bit of confusion. "Wait, Naruto's a Hatake?"

All gathered looked at the woman and shook their heads. "Naw, more like I was taken in by his father and swore to always look after him. Which I've always done while home," Kakashi noted.

Hiruzen nodded as did Asuma. "I still think he could use a sibling to talk to, Kakashi," Asuma pointed out.

Tsume growled low, sounding like a wolf as she crossed her arms under her sizable chest. "I have no idea who his parents are... I once thought it was Kushina, as she was the most notorious Uzumaki in the village and he acts just like her despite never meeting the woman," Tsume noted. "But, her hair was so red that there's no way her genes wouldn't be more dominant. Then I considered, Lady Tsunade, but she may be too old, even for an illegitimate brat."

As the gathered shuffled nervously, Tsume narrowed her eyes. "One of Mito-sama's descendants? They took strange hair colors, like that Haruno on Kakashi's team," she pointed out.

The men shook their heads. "Sorry, but we can't reveal the truth of his lineage. At least not until this generation reaches Jounin. We still don't have the ninja strength to fend off the number of aggressors towards his parents," Hiruzen replied before the woman could ask.

As the sun kissed the earth, the Jounin watched as the teens separated, Ino and Hinata dashing off into the woods while Meixing and Naruto pulled out another book.

Asuma sighed. "Well, I've got to go make sure the girls get home safely," he commented before dashing away as well.

Tsume looked at Kakashi with a questioning eye to see if he would leave too. The man waved his hand dismissively. "I usually stick around here a couple days on end until Naruto wears himself out," he pointed out as he flipped another page. "But, make sure you watch closely as they use their nin-ken style, it might surprise you," he addressed jovially as he sent an eye-smile.

Tsume ignored the perverse giggle from Kakashi and looked back into the field.

In a loud explosion Meixing shifted into her horse form, a beautiful white mare at eighteen hands without a blemish. Her white mane and tail danced as she whinnied stamped the ground, her Motoki beginning to leak into the air. Naruto nodded and started to fit her helmet in place, her armored image resplendent like the previous morning.

As Naruto flashed through handseals that led to a culmination Tsume wasn't familiar with, she watched as Naruto's bright jumpsuit hardened.

Tsume narrowed her eyes. "Is that the iron hair technique?"

Hiruzen nodded softly. "He wanted to buy some armor but I told him it would be too heavy and bulky, not to mention loud when on the battlefield, so he made up his own armor-forming transformation. He's really a genius when it comes to making jutsu."

Tsume nodded dumbly.

Out in the clearing a kill intent exploded into the air at levels nearing high Chuunin and grabbed Tsume's attention. The powerful aura was from Naruto as he began to smoke with pure Chakra leaking into the air. Meixing's tail fluttered as her Motoki was enveloped by Naruto's own, exploding into an even greater presence. This brought Tsume to a halt. It wasn't anywhere near enough to stun the experienced Jounin warrior but she did pause as it was easily nearing that of a high-level Jounin's kill intent.

"That's amazing! No wonder Hana didn't know what hit her and they're already so close to perfect synchronization," she remarked, watching the green of Naruto, and lighter green of Meixing's, Motoki merge and dance about.

"Yosh, so the first technique is a size manipulation," Naruto called out loudly as he nodded his head, tugging at a set of leather reins.

Meixing tossed her head up and down in the manner of any normal horse while speaking. "Alright, try taking over my Motoki and doing it. Tsume-sensei showed me how she synchronizes with her partner and I'm eager to see if we can do it too," Meixing announced happily.

Tsume raised an eyebrow. "This can turn out badly, she's nowhere near ready to give up Chakra control," Tsume addressed.

A moment later when Naruto was thrown from the horse's back by Chakra repulsion, Tsume was proven right. Naruto slowly got to his feet, his right arm bent at the wrong angle and smiled sheepishly.

Before Hiruzen could stop her, Tsume dashed into the clearing and started mothering Naruto. "Dammit, you broke your arm, brat," she fussed as she looked over Naruto's wound.

Hiruzen smiled and faded into a whirl of leaves. Kakashi sighed, recognizing the fact Tsume was going to bring the two kids' training to an end for the night and closed his book. "Oh well. Good night, Naruto-kun," he offered before leaving in a shunshin of his own.

(Naruto's Apartment)

"Come on Tsume-sensei," Naruto grumbled as the Jounin led him into his room. "It was just a little break and I've already healed it! Me and Meixing could have kept practicing all night," he complained.

Tsume kept her face stern. "First of all, no healing jutsu can be used like that without some kind of limit of backlash, so stop using now and recover naturally unless it's an emergency," the mother wolf barked. Naruto and Meixing cringed as both, as well as Ino and Hinata, constantly used the instant recovery from chapter five. They started using as soon as Naruto came across it.

"Second, who the hell told you idiots to try synchronizing Chakra networks when only one of you even had a lesson. Not that you even mastered the first level of it, Meixing," she snapped as her fangs came to bare.

Tora raised her head and looked at the angry kunoichi before lying back down with a yawn.

Meixing sighed in defeat and let her shoulders slump. "I thought that I could do it if I had Naruto-sama at my side," she offered by way of explanation.

Naruto frowned though and crossed his arms. "We don't need your help you old crone! We've managed to get this far on our own after all of this time," he announced dismissively, an aloof expression on his face.

"K... K-k... WHO THE HELL IS OLD?!"

Meixing shook her head sadly as she stared at the smoldering crater where Naruto was now buried. "He asked for that," she noted.

"Mao," Tora mewled and nodded her head in agreement.

Tsume huffed, dusting her hands. "From now on you only practice team training when I'm with you. It's the reason I'm your Jounin sensei."

Receiving Meixing's nod, Tsume stormed out of the apartment, grumbling the whole way. "Damn idiot... Call me old... I could land a man as young as Hana," she noted to herself as she slammed the front door.

"N-Naruto-sama," Meixing offered as she dug the blonde out of the floor. "Maybe you shouldn't antagonize a Jounin," she offered.

Naruto nodded in a dazed state as his eyes swirled, his face a macabre mixture of lumps.

OoOoOoOoO

AN: A special thanks goes out to Ryuujin 96 and Jormungandr1994. These two have helped me greatly with the editing and overall flow of the chapter and I felt I should toss the two a bone. Thanks futari-dono!

(1) I am well aware that Naruto is a Wind type and even mentioned it in the story, however, it has also been shown in the series that someone can learn the wrong element to their affinity, such as Sasuke being Lightning type yet forced himself to learn Katon (Fire). For the sake of this story, Ino, Hinata and Meixing all have Water affinity but only Ino has any Ninjutsu scrolls for it. (Meixing is an orphan and the Hyuuga only rely on Taijustu and variants of such)

(2) Kakashi was out of the village on his final mission to the national border before returning. He didn't get to argue his case that he uses nin-ken all the time and shouldn't lose Naruto as a student. That's why he's upset.

(3) I can't find any mention of names for any of the Three Haimaru Brothers, So I'm going to be using Gin, Souther and Juuza.

Glossary:

Suiton: Kagebunshin – Water Release/Style: Shadow Clone. Such a thing was never mentioned in the anime to my knowledge, but Hiruzen uses an Earth-based Shadow Clone (Doton: Kagebunshin) in his fight with Orochimaru. Because of a lack of being mentioned, I'm attributing the technique to Naruto

Toki - battle aura

Motoki - evil battle aura

Genma Erie - Magical Spirit or evil shadow

Lava lava – a unisex sarong type wrap common among the Pacific Islands.

Dai-Ichi no Rasho – Supreme/First-Great General


	4. Chapter 4

_Sasuke grinned like a savage as he gazed at his own green blazing fist, his Sharingan whirling madly as his allowed his three tomoe to stretch out. "Heh, with these eyes, I can see your techniques and even return then with equal force," he noted, pointing at the scorch mark on Naruto's chest where his punch enshrouded in his Chakra burned through._

 _Naruto gritted his teeth so tightly that his gums began to bleed. "So what, you think you're better than me, Sasuke?!" he challenged angrily as he quickly got to his feet, his Motoki healing his wounds before Sasuke's eyes._

 _"Those blasted eyes mean nothing," Naruto thundered out as his Chakra exploded in a green wildfire, his shadow expanding and snarling with its demonic visage at Sasuke._

 _"You don't know what you're talking about, Naruto," Sasuke returned, his own body duplicating Naruto's actions, even his shadow growing to match Naruto's. "You're just jealous that you don't have my advantage."_

 _Naruto shook his head violently, side to side. "You don't get it," Naruto started as his Motoki suddenly cut off and winked out of existence. With the kind of smile one gives a toddler when pointing out what's obvious to adults, Naruto continued. "What good are those eyes if you're just copying my style? If you find your own fist too weak to stand against mine? Their useless! You're admitting to me how superior I really am, Sasuke," Naruto advised before crossing his arms._

 _Sasuke took a step back, his eyes widening as he considered Naruto's words. It was true, his Uchiha fighting style wasn't a match Naruto's Hokuto Ryuuken, outclassed at every avenue. Slowly his Motoki aura and Genma Erie subsided before winking into nothingness._

 _"So you finally get it?"_

 _Naruto's words were a distant echo to Sasuke, almost muddled as his mind raced, his eyes spiraling in irritation._

 **OoOoOoOoO**

 **Chapter 4**

 **OoOoOoOoO**

Sasuke glared as he awoke, still lying on his back, forearm over his forehead. It was /that/ dream again. Events that had never happened, an accusation that he would see never would come to fruition.

It would never be said that an Uchiha wasn't prideful. And Sasuke, as the last of his clan, had the heaviest burden of pride. He needed a style of his own that could put him on the same level as Kakashi, and keep him far above that twice damned Naruto.

Intellectually Sasuke knew Naruto was his best ally and the perfect rival to keep pushing him, but his damned pride said that the boy wanted to prove he was better than himself. With a scowl on his face, Sasuke got up, climbing out of bed.

"There's got to be some fighting style that I can use," he grumbled to himself. He quickly slipped on a pair of white baggy pants, usually worn on cold nights, and a black tanktop before heading out of his family home. He walked the empty streets of the Uchiha District before coming to the council hall. A year ago he never would have ventured through here, but things were different now...

He pushed the heavy steel door open, the hinges groaning their protest as Sasuke swore to fix that with oil later. He started a long trek through the empty, dark halls of place, his eyes shifting to his nearly mastered Sharingan, easily piercing the dark.

There was a grooved outline at the end of one of the branching hallways and Sasuke stepped up to it, placing his palm dead center and sending a burst of Chakra through.

The groove widened with a soft hiss and the Uchiha pushed open the now revealed sliding door. He stepped within and a light flickered on, giving full display of a hidden library.

Here, like the lair of a dragon, the Uchiha had hidden their treasure. Jutsu of every kind, fighting styles from the world over, all collected by their eyes and conscripted to scrolls.

These scrolls were at first arranged in a nonsensical manner to Sasuke, back when he found this place the first time. But here, today, when he had need of certain aspects, it all made sense. He needed something fast and strong for a fighting style and there were hundreds of styles matching that description. Amazingly, he spotted the name of one he honestly hadn't expected.

"The Hummingbird Fist? Wasn't that the Yondaime's style," he pondered as he reached for the scroll. As his eyes went over the movements and the training to keep up with the strain on the body, saddle grinned. It didn't say how he achieved his instantaneous transitions, but Sasuke was sure he would find something later. For now, he had his speed style.

"Now, for some power," he grumbled. There were many that boasted power, but the majority were for muscle heads or suicidal final attacks, not limited to the Akimichi final technique. "Is that why they eat so much," Sasuke noted as he saw how much body fat and Chakra was converted. It was a terrifying and humbling thought that Choji held the potential to end a ninja on par himself.

But he didn't want to be fat in order to beat Kakashi... Sighing, he came across the last scroll of powerful styles and frowned. It was a Suiton style, although nearly every attack could be duplicated with Katon... It would have to do.

 *****line break*****

While Sasuke was busy looking for a new way to get better, events were occurring all around the village that would change the structure and rattle the cages of sleeping bears.

Hiashi glared at his daughter as she was flowed like water through a foreign kata that emphasized power over the gentle touches of Jyuuken. For an entire year he had allowed the girl to learn this strange fist, assuming she would fail and give up. Yet, here she was, practicing with her sister who is a natural Jyuuken master and matching her blow for blow.

No, the two were not sparring; they were each performing a kata at opposite ends, displaying to himself and the council how Hokuto Ryuuken complimented and even covered the holes in the family style. While Hanabi had her Byakugan engaged and burning diligently, Hinata was completely relaxed, eyes even close, much less using her kekkei genkai.

To say that the council was impressed was an understatement. They were in love with the style and enjoying the way it easily walked through the guards and defenses of Jyuuken. Granted the girls were moving in slow motion, but considering that a practitioner could move equal speeds to a Hyuuga, it showed that the clan was in trouble. Luckily, only a handful of kids were utilizing it and given half of an excuse, Hiashi would arrange for misfortune to occur before any of the Genin grew too strong.

"That's great, Hinata-sama," crowed a councilor as the girls bowed to one another. "This new Hokuto Ryuuken is perfect! Where did you learn it?"

"Our darling Hinata-sama may have been a late-bloomer (ha, irony), but she's shown so much improvement this year! Why, I'd wager that she made it up herself," praised another.

Hinata flushed lightly and swallowed. Her nerves were starting to get to her. "This style... It's Master... I made a deal to learn this," she stuttered. While it didn't happen nearly as often as it did a year ago, it still occurred from time to time, like now, with all of these expectant eyes on her. She knew what their reaction would be, but if she was going to fulfill her pledge to Naruto, then this was a necessary step to bridge the gap.

Hiashi cleared his throat ominously, gathering the attention of everyone there and allowing Hinata a brief respite. "In your own time, daughter," he afforded.

Hinata smiled softly at her father. Her relations to the man had never been what a typical father and daughter had, but Naruto had actually been the one to show her what she needed to see. Her father loved her and, while limited by propriety, he would make small gestures to encourage her. He wasn't allowed to speak for her, much less overtly give his displays of affection, but he could pull the focus on to himself such as what he had done now.

Hinata took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "This is a fighting style owned by the newly established Uzumaki Clan," she announced firmly.

The council exploded. Shouts and cries of dismay rang out, hands and feet stomped on the wooden floors of the dojo and somehow someone managed to get his hands on a pair of shinobi sandals and threw them at Hinata.

The heiress easily dodged both. "If that is all, I will continue," Hinata stated firmly, her voice tight and tone serious. She almost looked and sounded like Hiashi himself, making the assembled grow to a quiet subservience. "In payment for increasing our clan's Taijutsu to include an entire second school, I have pledged to gift our allegiance to the Uzumaki Clan."

Oh dear. If the previous reaction was wild, this one made the prior outburst seem like a subdued acceptance.

Hiashi sighed while the gathered grew riotous even turning to assault one another in their anger and discontent. He would say nothing. Hinata was the heir and future of the clan. If she was _ever_ going to earn respect she needed to take it here and now. He couldn't interject in either direction.

Hanabi, surprisingly, as the secondary heiress looked thoughtful, her tactical mind considering all she had learned and observed of this new fighting style, and it helped that she knew her sister was barely into her thick book of learning. After all, few things were kept secret between sisters.

Finally the assembled council calmed while Hinata sat across from them, Hanabi at her side, sipping a steaming cup of green tea. "How can you swear our allegiance," cried Asuma, the chosen speaker for the council, an aged man that had served as a ninja as long as Hiruzen Sarutobi. "We already have given our allegiance upon the establishing of this village," he thundered as he slammed the bottom of his fist onto the floor.

Hinata raised her right hand, earning a proud twinkle of the eyes from her father. She fought hard not to smile at that accomplishment. "Our allegiance was to the Senju Clan. Outside of Tsunade-sama - who is _also_ a registered Uzumaki, by the way - there are no Senju left and our village's princess is far past the age of conception. Or have you forgotten this?"

Another man, this one young, only mid-twenties, but was an accomplished Elite Jounin already, named Setsuna. "But, even if that's the case, there's only one legitimate Uzumaki, and I can't see any women willing to sleep with a... a _boy_ ," he finished lamely, the steam dying as he recalled the Third's Law. "He has no heirs either. What if he dies on a mission, Shinigami forbid," he pointed out.

Hinata allowed her eyes to close. She was no fool. She knew there was something about Naruto. Her own eyes showed her and her ears picked up snippets from the older generations in regards to it. She didn't know what it was yet and she doubted even Naruto knew, given the confused glares he usually sent the more stouthearted villagers.

"I support my sister's decision," Hanabi interrupted, causing gasps throughout the hall with her announcement. "I also would offer my services in engaging myself to the Uzumaki Clan's head. That is, should another, better option, not arise," Hanabi added the last with a smirk at her blushing tomato red sister. 'That should give her the kick in the pants,' the manipulative Hyuuga assessed as she imagined her meddling and matchmaking rival, Ino's, face when she find out.

"This... THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS," Asuma bellowed, his eyes seeing red as he ripped open his kimono and beat his chest.

Hinata, closed her eyes and stood up, declaring an end to the formal meeting, her face still ablaze at what her little sister had done.

As Hinata entered the hallway she laid back against a nearby wall, her face still as red as it was inside the room. She placed a hand over her chest and whispered a quiet "thank you," to Hanabi for the show of support and even helping her to confront Naruto about establishing a relationship. After all, it had been an entire year since her confession. Surely by now he would know about dating relationships.

Hanabi slid the door open to Hinata's side, allowing the thunderous bellows of stiff old men to permeate the hallways for all of a moment before the younger heiress closed the door. "Hinata. You did great in there," she addressed warmly. Well, as warmly as any Hyuuga was allowed to be, with the exception of Hinata herself.

In mentioning Hinata, said teenager managed to stand upright and pulled Hanabi into a fierce hug. "Oh Hanabi-chan, do you think Naruto will accept a marriage proposal?" Hinata asked, chewing on her lower lip as her nerves began to fray. This was one of the many reasons that she hated such situations. She could say something as an order and a few minutes later she would second-guess herself.

Hanabi smiled. A genuine, honest to Hokage, smile! "That's nothing. I know he will." Seeing her elder sister visibly relax, she added something in to the statement. Something would start to cause mayhem in Konoha. "Please, inform Ino of this declaration, and tell her I said-"

 **(The Following Morning, Ichiraku)**

"'Top THAT'?! Who the heck does that meddling little- little _girl_ think she's trifling with," Ino raged as she stormed across the restaurant, her feet wearing a deep furrow as she considered the challenge Hanabi. Oh, Ino was quite familiar with the younger Hyuuga. Ino had spent her last four years of academy building her reputation among the villagers as a sexy teenage girl that could flirt any man or woman into putty, yet Hanabi, only entering her first year academy, hadn't even had to try.

The people Ino had wormed her into controlling were falling over backwards to kiss that Hyuuga brat's feet! No, Ino wasn't going to allow this to stand. Hinata and Naruto had been a slow and ongoing project that Ino had established and fed daily for the entire year. She was only a month from getting Naruto to confess to Hinata, and that little trollop...

"An engagement? And a formal one at that," Ino groaned as she began to knead her forehead. "If I had been the one to suggest it she would have sided with the bloody council," Ino whined and grumbled in frustration.

You might be asking where Naruto was at this time. That answer was simple, he was sitting next to Hinata, the pair as red as lobsters with steam starting to swirl over each teen's head. Sitting on the private table was an opened scroll with the official and formal request that Naruto accept the hand of either Hinata or Hanabi Hyuuga as a declaration to treat the Hyuuga Clan fairly under his banner.

Yes, Naruto had figured out a bit of the details about relationships. Not everything, mind you, but enough to know that he'd be required to spend a _lot_ more time with Hinata soon. And even as he considered this, entirely pleasant, idea he heard the voice of Ino once again.

"They'll start with," she was complaining but paused to blush. "Kiss-kiss..."

"Kyaaah!" Meixing shrieked as she held her flaming cheeks. She had not considered this very real possibility happening! Where would she live now? After all, all of this last year she had been rooming with Naruto, using the extra stipend money to buy gear and clothes and ramen for the pair. Now she would be kicked to the streets and all for _kiss-kiss_... It was so daring and scandalous!

Ayame peeked her head into the private room to see what all of the commotion was about and spotted three out of four red in the face and the fourth pacing about while she was tossing her arms in the air and cursing Hanabi's name. "Uhh, maybe I should come back later," she offered meekly, the bowls of steaming ramen in her hands singing a siren's wail to the children within.

Naruto and Hinata were the first of the two to snatch a bowl greedily and begin devouring the ramen, although that may have been in an effort to hide the matching atomic blushes. Ayame smiled prettily as she passed around the bowls of divine nectar. "You know, those two really are cute together. It's like Fate," she teased offhandedly.

Meixing nodded her head and whispered to Ayame. "I hope you have a boyfriend or something, cause Ino's about to start playing matchmaker, she warned conspiratorially. When the blonde happened to allow her attention to drift towards the pair of older teens, Meixing panicked. "EEP!" she shrieked, trying to raise her hands defensively. Sadly the girl had completely forgotten that she was holding a bowl of ramen and managed to dump the entire bowl on her own head. "Noooo... My ramen," she moaned pitifully.

All eyes were on Meixing, spying the wasted ramen with true pain-filled expressions. "M-Mei-chan... How could you?" Naruto whimpered softly as he plucked a clump of noodles from her shoulder before putting it to his nose. After an experimental sniff, he slurped the noodles up. "Mmm, yummy!"

Four young ladies stared at Naruto like he had just grown a second head. "What? Something on my face," he asked as he started wiping his cheeks like a cat. Feeling as if he had already gotten whatever it was, he reached across to Meixing a second time, plucking more noodles from the girl, this time while it was on her shoulder, a bit of the noodle had found its way into her top and down her cleavage.

A soft mewling noise escaped Meixing's throat before she went as red as Hinata had been before. "N-Naruto-sama..." she gasped out in surprise, although to be fair the other young ladies were equally stunned, still unable to put thought to word. 'Naruto-sama is using me!'

"KYAAAH! NARUTO, DON'T DO PERVERTED THINGS!"

The scream echoed across the small room only a moment before shuffling sounded and Ayame raced away from the tent flaps, her cheeks as red as her headband. "Oh my," she whispered as she headed for her father's kitchen, her hands pressed to her cheeks.

 *****Line break*****

Naruto, blushing and dressed in a nice dinner suit sent his gaze sideways to Ino who was wearing a slinky black dress beside him, her arm looped around his own. He swallowed nervously and pulled at his bow tie, releasing steam into the air.

"Naruto-kun, stop fidgeting," Ino chastened softly, her lovely face stretched into an amused smile. She took a moment to lick her thumb before wiping a smudge hidden in the dark coloration of Naruto's whisker.

Naruto frowned and released an asked breath. "I don't even know what I'm here-ttebayo," he whined in protest.

Ino ignored his inquiry with a practiced ease while greeting the doorman and walking into the upscale restaurant. As a young man welcomed the pair, not concerned in the least at Naruto's presence, Ino dragged her fellow blonde along.

"Miss Yamanaka, Mr. Uzumaki," the greeter announced as he gestured to a nice corner booth that overlooked the rest of the establishment. "I trust that this booth will meet your requirements," he inquired softly.

Ino nodded, her amused grin growing feral as she tipped the young man. "Thanks, Toshiro."

As the young man ventured back to his podium, greeting the next entrants, Ino turned to face Naruto directly, that same predatory gleam from a moment ago in her eyes. "In a few minutes my newest project will be walking through that door on a secret date."

Naruto lifted a single brow in equal parts confusion and consternation; confusion at not knowing anything about Ino's project and consternation at the fact that his first real date was really just a mission. And a mission he wasn't even getting paid for...

"Oh, don't give me /that/ look," Ino addressed softly as her right hand reached out across the table and encircled her date's. It was touching to know that Naruto actually was looking forward to a date with her, but this was important! Her reputation as a matchmaker was on the line! "Tell you what. How about we act like we're on a normal date but every so often, we'll check up on my couple?"

Naruto leaned back, his eyes closed and frustration clearly on his face. "I don't know, Ino-chan," he returned, but neither paid attention to the fact Ino was still holding his hand.

The sound of Toshiro clearing his throat as he greeted a man wearing a nice two-piece suit, an earthy shade of brown with a creamy white shirt. The man was wearing a mask to protect his identity and a set of black leather gloves over his hands. Ino grinned giddily, one of only two who knew the man's identity.

As Toshiro ushered the man to a seat, a young woman stepped into the establishment, she wore a black cocktail dress that ended just above her knees with a split up the left side to mid-thigh and a crimson flame pattern that ran along her pantyhose and merged to run halfway up her dress, the tips licking at her breasts. Like the man before, she was wearing a mask, hers black with golden eyes and lovely eyelashes that seemed to flutter at random moments and a pair black gloves that ran up her arms, past the elbow and ending halfway up the upper arm. Her figure was to die for and the lightly bronzed skin was proof-positive that she wasn't fearful of the sun.

Toshiro quickly hustled over to her and showed the woman to the table, seating her directly across from the man.

Ino clapped her hands excitedly while Naruto scrunched up his face. He couldn't recognize either of them, yet they felt so familiar...

"Oh, this is gonna great, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto's frown only deepened as he balled his right hand into a fist, wondering why it had felt so warm only moments ago.

 **With The Couple**

As the woman was seated and Toshiro wandered away the man spoke, his voice deep and husky, a bit grainy yet intriguing as if he could talk for hours and keep anyone's attention. "Well, this certainly the most unique omiai I've ever attended," he jested. Somehow, despite the man's blank white mask, the woman could envision him with a hearty smile.

"Oh? Do you attend these often," she inquired with a note of curiosity within her mocking voice. A bit nervous the woman fiddled with her hands on the table and shuffled in her seat.

The man seemed to relax at the woman's return, barely noticing her body movements, or perhaps ignoring her bout with discomfort. "Well, to be honest, only one before. And it was a very long time ago," he offered genially, allowing the woman to relax a bit.

"I'm sorry, that was a bit rude of me to ask," the woman returned softly. "I didn't mean to offend, it's just..."

"Nerves?" The man's voice huffed out a magnitude of tension as he placed his own shaky hands on the table. "It's silly that I've been under the greatest pressures in life, and yet... Here and now, I can't keep my hands from trembling," he returned softly.

The woman have a soft laugh, her sounds of merriment like musical notes in the air of the upscale eatery. "Well, we definitely have the nerves in common. So, Ino says we can't talk about work, ages or give away names until the end of the date. What's there left to discuss," she asked calmly, her hands finally settling.

The man stroked his chin in thought. "I love reading, taking strolls through town and gazing into the night sky," he offered.

The woman leaned forward on her elbows, her hands holding her chin up. "Your voice is so intoxicating," she breathed huskily as her head tilted slightly. Ignoring the way that he cleared his throat, she continued. "My hobbies are cooking plotting pranks with a friend of mine," she offered warmly.

The man tugged at his collar as he adjusted himself. The way she was leaning was giving him a direct line of sight down her dress and where soft flesh have way to shadow, the man found himself inexorably drawn. He cleared his throat loudly and licked parched lips. "Um, the way you're leaning," he pointed out softly, drawing attention to his current cause of discomfort.

The woman looked down and the man would swear that her mask blushed! "Oh, I'm sorry!" She took a moment to sit upright and adjust the cleavage of her dress. For a moment the woman worried that she would burn her mask off as hot as her blush was. "Th-thank you," she managed to choke out. It wasn't often you met a man that would prevent you from displaying yourself, and it was for this reason that she offered her thanks to him.

 **With Everyone's Favorite Blonde Duo**

Ino squealed in delight, her feet thumping the ground excitedly. "EEEEEE! This is gonna be great! Just look at the way they're talking," she cheered to Naruto who looked even more confused than earlier.

"I don't get it," he groused as he played with his plate of salad. "This place is supposed to be a restaurant, but they don't even serve ramen..."

Ino visibly deflated as she turned back to Naruto. "They have curry here, maybe you'll like it as a replacement?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her as he hefted his firm fork to his mouth and bit down on crisp lettuce. "Curry is not a replacement for ramen..."

Ino smiled sheepishly before taking a nibble of her own salad. "At least the salads are fresh," she offered helpfully. Seeing Naruto nod as he ate his appetizer, Ino turned back to her little project. Just in time too, as the waiter was just returning with a tray of appetizers for the couple...

 **Omiai Table**

"I do apologize for the long wait," the young waiter offered as he placed two bowls on the table, one being a thick soup and the other two holding some foreign appetizers that neither occupant had seen before. "When you're ready, I'll take your orders," the young man offered.

The masked male nodded cordially. "I suppose I'll take the dancing octopus and some eel sashimi," he requested, handing over his menu.

The young woman hemmed and hawed for a pissing moment before selling on something as she nodded her head. "I'll have the shrimp okonomiyaki with extra tempura flakes," she requested.

The waiter smiled warmly and took the menus before departing.

"Okonomiyaki? That's singsong something I haven't had since I was a small child," the masked man offered with a whimsical lilt in his voice.

The woman nodded her head. "Tell me about it," the woman enthused happily. "My mother used to make it, and she was the best!"

The man nodded his head. "It's a shame that none of the stands in town offer it anymore," he returned as he pulled a section off of his mask to expose his mouth, although, by some quirk, the mask activated a minor genjutsu that obscured what piece of his face that showed.

The woman followed his example, pulling the mouth section from her own mask. Slowly and carefully she used her chopsticks to pluck something green from her bowl and sniffed at it. "I've never tried this before," she acknowledged when she looked up. The man across from her had stopped whatever he was doing to observe her in curiosity.

Of course, hearing the woman's admission earned his own head nod. He took a deep breath as the woman slid the green whatever-it-was into her mouth. His eyes widened as he wondered what the woman's reaction could be.

"Mmmm," she moaned as her shoulders slumped and she seemed to melt. "This... I don't know what it is, but... Wow," she breathed in rapture.

The man laughed good-naturedly and used his own chopsticks to duplicate her actions. The green thing turned out to be rather sweet and melted in his mouth like butter or cream and sent shivers down his spine. There was a hint of something in it that he wasn't familiar with, yet it didn't seem to matter as he reached to take a second morsel with his sticks. "Wow," he agreed, finding himself at a distinct lack of words. Many people that knew the man would be aghast had they known he was short on things to say.

For a few moments each enjoyed consuming their dish in a companionable silence. But all too soon the waiter had returned, placing the orders down for each patron with a gentle smile before vanishing again.

The felt his right hand twitch as a muscle memory tried getting him to reach into his jacket pocket for something to smoke, yet he fought down the urge with ruthless abandon. "So, do you find life in the village pleasing," he phrased carefully, wording it so as not to bring up either person's occupation.

The woman nodded enthusiastically, her hands clasped together as she stared into the distance, memories playing through her mind. "Since the day I was old enough to walk I've lived this village and wandering about to explore things," she returned with a wistful and adventurous note to her voice.

The man smiled and nodded his head carefully. "I know exactly what you mean. I would do the same thing back when I was a young boy. But, the current occupation takes up a lot of my time. Perhaps on the next date we can simply take a stroll?"

The woman seemed to smile right through her mask as she nodded. "I think that would be wonderful," she allowed, a bit of excitement in her voice. On the inside, the woman was dancing a happy little jig, even as she started into her meal.

The man nodded firmly, eating as well, his heart still racing a mile a minute. 'I can't believe I asked that!' he thought to himself in sheer panic. He was still shaking a bit, almost fearful that the woman him would change her mind and turn him down. Quietly, he worked at his food, not really eating, but watching the way that she enjoyed her own meal. It was like watching his own son some time ago when he found something to his interest. The man smiled fondly.

 **Spectators' Table**

Naruto sighed as he poked his spoon at the bowl of curry. "I still don't know how you talked me into getting this stuff," he grumbled before taking his first bite.

Ino grinned impishly as she looked away from the couple, turning her gaze towards Naruto's mesmerizing blue eyes. It was like being swallowed by the ocean as he returned her gaze. With a light blush slowly forming on her face, Ino cleared her throat. "What... What do you see when you look at me like that?" The Yamanaka silently cursed herself on two levels; the first level for stuttering and the second for giving in to temptation and asking the question that had been on her mind for such a long time.

Naruto smiled widely before rubbing at the back of his head. "You just... I don't know. You look really pretty like that," he offered softly.

Ino flushed lightly, her cheeks speckled with dots of red as she shrunk in on herself and focused on eating. Under her breath she whispered, "Naruto-baka."

 **Omiai**

The woman was giggling softly at a story the man was telling her, her face mask fluttering its eyelashes. "So that's how the Hokage Monument got painted," she laughed cutely.

The man nodded his head. "Oh yeah! That Naruto is a devious one when he sets his mind to it," the man praised with sheer joy and pride in his deep voice. For the young woman it was refreshing. For obvious reasons she was unable to understand why the village hated the blonde boy.

"You sound very fond of Naruto-kun," she remarked carefully. It wasn't exactly against the rules to garner information from her counterpart, and the list of people that treated Naruto fairly, much less with favor was exceedingly slim in this village.

The man rasped out a throaty chuckle that took the attention of many patrons, the blonde duo not excluded. "Well, you could certainly say that! If things were different I would have adopted him myself," he returned kindly. "There's far too few kids, ninja or otherwise with the potential that he holds, and I would love to see it cultivated," he admitted finally.

The woman smiled beatifically, her elation at the man's words giving her a strong resolve. "Well, that's all that I want to know. I would gladly marry any man that loves Naruto for the amazing kid that he is," she announced, even as she reached to pull her mask away.

The man coughed gently at the announcement and reached to remove his own mask. "While, I may admit that this idea of an omiai took me by surprise, it was certainly worth the date. And, I can't promise an immediate marriage or anything of the sort, but I would gladly extend my proposal," he returned formally, his mask moving away from his face.

As the bits of carbon moved away silence reigned.

"EEEEEHHHHH?!" Surprisingly, it wasn't the omiai pair. It was a rather shocking silly Naruto, now standing from his seat and pointing at the pair accusingly! The dull thuds of Naruto's chair reverberated as it bounced behind him. "Jiji? Ayame-chan! What the hell are you doing here," he challenged hotly.

Ino palmed her face before dragging the blonde boy out of the restaurant, only mildly embarrassed.

"Naruto-kun, you can't go around acting that way," she chastised softly. "You have _no_ idea what I had to go through to get these two to agree to an omiai in the first place!"

Naruto glared at the blonde girl across from him for a few moments before his gaze softened. "But... Why would Jiji and Ayame-chan date each other? He's so **old** ," Naruto punctuated as he pointed out the obvious.

Ino huffed and crossed her arms under her small bosom. "Duh, women like an established man. I mean, he's one of the oldest ninja in the village and still moves around as if he were forty by civilian standards of course. At least Ayame could have a man that she wouldn't have to worry about dying on a mission every week. I mean, with the way things are going, he's only going to be Hokage for another five years," she pointed out.

Naruto blinked at her in confusion. "What... Why five years?"

Ino stared at her fellow blonde and for the first time in a year wondered if Naruto really was the stereotype for their shared hair color. "He's going to have to retire and at that point, I'm assuming that he will name you the Godaime, idiot! Can you imagine where you'll be in five years training time?"

Slowly a smile stretched over Naruto's face as realization dawned on him. "I'm gonna be Hokage-ttebayo!"

Ino could only shake her head and sigh. 'Of course, that's the only thing he heard in that whole exchange,' she mentally complained. Some days Naruto could seem like such a genius while others, as she had noted before, he was the stereotypical blonde. It seemed today he was opting for the blonde more than the genius, sadly.

 **Within The Restaurant**

Hiruzen cleared his throat softly as he looked on the form of the young lady across from him. Honestly, he had never met the young woman, and other than seeing her face a few times either in passing or through some paperwork across his desk – neither of which Hiruzen was certain of – he had never seen Ayame Ichiraku before. Yet, as he watched the way that the teen's eyes sparkled as she looked upon his form, he felt his heated cheeks only darken. "Um, Hiruzen Sarutobi," he greeted warmly, standing up and bowing formally.

Ayame started, her awe-struck gaze broken by the older man's words and she flushed as scarlet as her dress. "A-Ayame Ichiraku! It's a pleasure to meet you, Sandaime-sama," she returned formally, her bow excessively deep as she greeted the village's leader and the world renowned Shinobi no Kami.

It was as the two righted themselves that Ino returned, one Naruto Uzumaki being absent. "Wow, this is great! I knew you'd hit it off! Although, I thought maybe two or three dates would be required before the reveal happened," she returned with a proud smile. 'Eat your childish heart out, Hanabi! I'm so kicking your butt in the matchmaking game,' she mentally cheered.

The matched pair flushed as they looked to one another and then away in a bout of nerves. After a few moments the pair looked up at Ino, Ayame the first to find her voice. "H-how did you manage to set this up," she pondered aloud as she looked her young friend.

Ino grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Well, you see," she began.

 **A Few Days Prior**

Hiruzen sighed as he took a drag of his pipe and he stared out of the window at he village as a whole. His mind played back memories of over a decade prior; memories of a massive village swarming with ninjas of many clans. It was a time before the Kyuubi attacked and before he had lost his beloved wife. Biwako, the lovely head of the hospital and mednins, would often find herself walking along the streets towards his tower and she would always take the time to stop and smile up at him as he watched his village. Things were different now, and it couldn't be more clear as his visage crossed from the past into the present. A village square that had been completely rebuilt and now only had a quarter of the traffic from that time. No longer as there a smiling Biwako, but he did stop a happy Naruto, bouncing along the street with Meixing chasing along behind him, the two engaged in some type of banter.

"Hrm!" The sound of a throat clearing behind him reawakened the Hokage to the presence of someone else in the room. Tired shoulders sagged a little lower before Hiruzen turned about to face his youngest son, Asuma and his squad of Genin. "Sandaime-sama," he addressed in concern. "You said you had a special mission for us?"

Hiruzen nodded his head, his eyes distant and almost seeming to be haunted. Ino spotted the gaze from across the room with ease while Shikamaru did his best to ignore it and Choji was just ignorant while munching on a bag of chips. "Yes, I apologize. The Fire Lord's cat, Tora has escaped and needs to be retrieved. It should be somewhere in the village. Here is a photo, and oddly enough he runs away when you call his name, so that should be enough of a determining factor when seeking him out," he offered softly as he took a few puffs of his pipe.

Asuma nodded and turned a dark gaze on his kids, knowing just how much Hell they were about to be subjected to. "Yessir, we'll accept the assignment. "Alright kids, let's go catch us a cat," he called out fondly as he led Shikamaru and Choji out of the room.

There was silence for a time while only Ino and Hiruzen remained, the elder seated in his high-backed chair. "Yes, Miss Yamanaka?"

Ino frowned slightly, her heart going out for the older ninja. "Sandaime-sama, how long have you been alone? I mean Asuma-sensei is your youngest as he's been gone since right after the Kyuubi attack. Does that mean you've been alone since then?"

Hiruzen coughed lightly and took a few puffs. His aged eyes measured Ino in the same way he would any adult challenging him and it honestly made the blonde girl a bit nervous and fidgety. "I'm not certain how that relates to you, Ino," he pointed out finally. The words were spoken with a finality that should have scared the girl away, yet she stubbornly remained, even if she did bite down on her lower lip for a few moments as she eyed the exits.

"Well, what if I could find someone for you. Someone that you might feel a real connection with?"

"Like some form of matchmaker? Aren't you a few decades too young," the Hokage wondered without any harshness in his voice, merely curiosity. After all, most of the younger generation seemed to have no interest in the aged old traditions, much less matchmaking.

Ino nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm really young, but one might also argue that I'm too young to be a fully-trained ninja, Hokage-sama," she returned, missing the shamed face of the elder. "I'm actually really good at matching people! I use an algorithm that compiles info from star signs, chemistry, affinity, occupation and even age. By the time I've run my calculations you'll be paired with your soul mate, or your money back," she enthused merrily.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "My money back?"

"Well, I'm not exactly running a charity, and someone has to pay for the omiai expenses," she returned easily.

Hiruzen swallowed nervously. For a moment there he saw the same gleam in the eyes of Ino that his old friend Koharu Utatane once held when matchmaking so many years ago. "Uh, I'm not really looking-" his protest was interrupted by Ino.

"That's right! You most certainly are _not_ searching. And that's the biggest problem! You have nothing to fight for anymore and because of that, you are lacking the Fire in your eyes that you once held. Each year I could see it dwindling more and more, until now where it looks like embers," she explained before adding in, "embers that are about to go out."

Hiruzen held his mouth open. He wanted to protest, to tell this little child that she was wrong. But, even as he found her eyes, he knew that she spoke the truth and that she knew she was the one holding all the cards.

"So, child," he addressed in a defeated tone of voice while he paced around the room, preparing his pipe for a smoke. "What, exactly, would you suggest that I do to resolve this problem?"

Ino grinned like an angel as she slid up next to kind old man, her shoulder rubbing against his side. "For starters, you need to stop smoking so much! It's stinky," she complained softly a she took the pipe from him, a perk for being the Yamanaka Clan heir and having such a close relation to the Sarutobi Clan.

Hiruzen's face fell momentarily as he considered the loss of his pipe before his shoulders sagged and he conceded. He knew that he had been embellishing himself in the absence of his late wife, Biwako, who had always regulated his purchase and usage. "Okay, so less smoking," he spoke softly.

Ino shook her head, that angelic light still in her eyes. "No, I said 'no more smoking,' as in at all," she corrected matter-of-factually.

For a moment Ino could almost swear she spotted a tear in the elder ninja's eyes. In fact, she heard a few short sniffles before the man turned to look out of the window forlornly.

"Good, you've accepted that rather easily, it'll make the next part _much_ easier," she crowed cheerfully as she tossed the pipe into a waste bin.

Hiruzen tried hard not to flinch at the sound of his pipe being trashed, he really did. Unfortunately, Ino caught the backwards glance of his eyes and tutted him. "When I get here tomorrow I expect that pipe to still be in this bin, Hokage-sama," she declared, causing the man to shiver, recalling his dearly-departed Biwako using the same tone when she was Ino's age.

For a few moments there was silence, broken only by the sounds of breathing and the movement of people out in the hallway. "You're going to help me build a profile for yourself so I can start matchmaking," she cheered happily.

Hiruzen raised a hand and opened his mouth to protest when Koharu Utatane happened to be entering, a dangerous glimmer in her eyes as she held a dainty hand to her mouth. "Don't even think of refusing, Hiru-chan. What would Biwako say if she knew you spent the last twelve years doing everything she hated you doing and on top of that you never moved on from her," the woman pointed out with more than a hint of amusement in her voice. Oh, she hadn't felt this excited about meddling in people's affairs in a _long_ time! Granted she did so as a profession now, but the fire was gone until today.

Ino grinned and gave a "V" sign to indicate her impending victory. "Alright, I have a partner in this," she cheered happily.

Koharu eyed the young blonde girl and for a moment felt as if she were seeing a young Biwako, not that the two looked entirely similar, more of the playful nature and spirit of the old woman Hiruzen had married was perfectly reflected in Ino. "I'll do you one better, I'll even help you to set up this old codger with someone," she offered warmly, something that was far out of character for the aged ninja.

Ino weighed the offer up as she tilted her head to the side slightly. "Hmmm, on the next one I can certainly use the help. But this one, I'll be taking care of on my own. I do have a rival after all," Ino pointed out as if stating the obvious.

Koharu nodded her head softly and turned around to observe the room, realizing for the first time that someone was conspicuously absent. "Hokage-sama, where is Homura?"

Unseen by either woman in the room, Homura waved frantically at his former teammate and long time friend for mercy. Presently, he was hidden under the Hokage's desk, curled into a tight ball. "Don't let he find me," he prayed softly to whichever gods had favored him for so long. He had spotted that spark in Koharu's eyes the moment they crossed the threshold into the office and he'd broken away to hide.

Hiruzen coughed lightly as he no longer had his pipe to defer to. "Um, I haven't seen him," he lied through his teeth.

Koharu narrowed her eyes dangerously before turning to leave. "Ino, come with me, I'll offer you a few pointers on what the old codger likes to do and what matches his personality," she offered, sending a backward glare at Hiruzen that sent a shiver up the man's spine.

"Yeesh, it feels like she just walked over my grave," Hiruzen called out in slight fear before Homura crawled out of his hiding place.

"Yeah, no kidding. Nice save by the way, Hiru-kun," he offered with a brotherly punch to the arm.

Hiruzen nodded his head. "Yeah, well you owe me one. A really big one," he returned playfully. Although, he might actually have to call in the favor if these two women became too insistent on his dating life.

 **Minutes Later with Ino and Koharu**

Ino tapped a finger to her chin in thought as she listened to and reflected upon the elder's words. "Well, I know of maybe three women in this village that would fit with that criteria; Kurenai Yuuhi, Anko Mitarashi and Ayame Ichiraku," she returned softly.

Koharu blinked a few times as she considered the three named women, two being young ninja and the last a simple girl working a ramen stand. "If I may offer some advice," she interjected firmly. Ino graced her with a nod, her gaze firmly on the older ninja. "Maybe the women you're considering are all too young?"

Ino shook her head vehemently. "You know how this world works more than anyone," Ino refuted. "Old men like young girls. Why would the Hokage want some aged old prune with saggy bits when he can have a young and beautiful kunoichi to warm his bed?"

Koharu started to protest as she considered her own saggy bits, but was held off as the dynamic duo happened upon Anko Mitarashi and Kurenai Yuuhi, the pair coming from a sushi shop while chatting animatedly.

"Aha!" Ino shouted proudly, pointing to the pair of women. "There's no escaping your fates! I need you two to fill out these forms," Ino ordered as if she were of higher rank or standing as she handed two stacks of papers to each ninja appreciatively.

The kunoichi both looked to one another before accepting the documents and walking away.

Ino grinned as she shouted the next words, looking like a tiger with a fresh kill. "You have until midnight to finish those forms, ladies."

Just Anko opened her mouth, her right hand already burning with flames as she prepared to set fire to the stacks, Koharu opened her aged eyes, killing intent on a Kage-level washing over the younger ninja, and spoke. "Please see to it that you fill in every line, Miss Mitarashi, Miss Yuuhi," she declared pointedly, her gravelly voice grating as she spoke.

"Uh, yes ma'am," Anko offered weakly as she gave a slight shiver. As soon as the two turned a corner Anko tossed her paperwork at Kurenai. "Gods above, why do I have to fill out so many damn forms?! I haven't even been on a good mission in months!"

Kurenai snickered lightly as she walked alongside her friend and began to read over the questions. "Well, it could be worse," Kurenai addressed as she read a line. "At least your favorite clothes are fishnet mesh and short skirts. How do I explain that I wrap myself in a single strip of paper from neck to mid-thigh? Can you imagine what would happen if that knowledge got out?"

Anko snickered as she watched Ebisu, who happened to be strolling along with his Genin team pass out at the openly stated admission. "Haha! I always knew that creep was a pervert! All his talk of being so upstanding was just bullshit," she teased while the three kids started tapping the man to wake him. "Oi, kids, stop messing him like that," she admonished before grinning darkly at Kurenai.

The taller woman gave a look that would better suit a demon as she reached into her folds and pulled out a few permanent ink pens. "Here. Draw on his face, it usually wakes him up faster," she offered morbidly.

The three Genin matched the women with equally dark looks as they took the pens and started to doodle. "Well, if you think it will _help_ ," returned Yakumo with a sinister grin.

 **AN: I'm sorry, I know it's short, but I have had this chapter sitting on a burner for awhile now and haven't had time to add to it. I'm already working on the next chapter and I should have it out much sooner. After all, it's nearly complete, just need to edit and add some sections.**

 **SSTR87**


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